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(CN) — Anneliese Dodds, the U.K. minister for international development, stepped down Friday after Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s decision to cut foreign aid to increase defense spending.
In a letter to Starmer published on social media, Dodds agreed that the U.K. must spend more on defense, stating that “the postwar global order has come crashing down,” but those expenditures shouldn’t be at the expense of international development.
“You have maintained that you want to continue support for Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine; for vaccination; for climate; and for rules-based systems,” Dodds wrote in her letter. “Yet it will be impossible to maintain these priorities given the depth of the cut.”
She went on to say that the cuts, approximately $7.6 billion per year, would remove food and health care for the most vulnerable people around the world, harming the U.K.’s reputation.
Earlier this week, Starmer announced the biggest increase in defense spending since the end of the Cold War, raising the current level of 2.3% of GDP to 2.5% by 2027, intending to raise it eventually to 3%. U.S. President Donald Trump has been critical of European countries not spending enough on defense; he wants their governments to increase military spending to 5%.
Starmer said that the increase would be “funded through hard choices,” cutting the foreign aid budget from 0.5% GDP to 0.3%, and that “a generational challenge requires a generational response.”
In her resignation letter, Dodds highlighted the parallels in Trump’s slashing of foreign aid.
“I know you have been clear that you are not ideologically opposed to international development,” she wrote. “But the reality is that the decision is already being portrayed as following in President Trump’s slipstream of cuts to USAID.”
In his meeting with Trump at the White House on Thursday, the prime minister reiterated his commitment to increase defense spending and said he is prepared to put British troops on the ground in Ukraine if there is a peace deal.
Dodd’s resignation, which was held off not to overshadow the prime minister’s discussions in Washington, follows disquiet among the governing Labour Party. Labour Minister of Parliament Diane Abbott criticized the cuts to foreign aid, saying it was “shameful” that other ministers hadn’t resigned.
While Starmer was in Washington, 138 NGO leaders in the U.K. wrote an open letter to the prime minister, calling for a reversal in his decision to cut the aid budget, warning that it puts at risk programs supporting marginalized communities facing poverty, conflict and climate change.
“This move will also destroy Labour’s legacy on international development and will leave your manifesto commitments and the government’s ambition to be a reliable development partner on the global stage in tatters,” the letter read.
“At a time when the U.S. retreats from the world,” the leaders continued, the government should honor its promise to “once again become a reliable partner on the world stage. Anything less will cost lives and significantly damage our long-term interests.”
Dodds is the fourth minister to leave the government. Louise Haigh resigned as transport secretary after admitting to pleading guilty to a criminal offense in 2014. Tulip Siddiq resigned as treasury minister following growing pressure over an anti-corruption investigation. Andrew Gwynne was sacked as a minister and suspended from the Labour Party following offensive messages in a WhatsApp group.
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