LONDON (AP) – The British minister responsible for international development quit Friday in the wake of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s decision earlier this week to ramp up defense spending by slashing the foreign aid budget.
In a letter to Starmer, which she posted on social media, Anneliese Dodds resigned as international development minister and minister for women, saying there were “no easy paths” to increasing defense spending but that she disagreed with the decision to cut overseas aid.
On Tuesday, Starmer said the government would raise U.K. defense spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product by 2027 from the current 2.3%, saying Europe is in a new era of insecurity that requires a “generational response.”
The increase would be funded by a reduction in the aid budget from 0.5% of GDP to 0.3%, a decision that Starmer described as “very difficult and painful.”
Britain Answers Trump’s Call, Raids Foreign Aid Budget to Boost Defence… Very Slightlyhttps://t.co/di6TVtMQHN
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 25, 2025
In her letter, Dodds said she backed the need for higher defense spending and knew that the aid budget might have to pay for some of that increase. But she said the scale of the cut was so big it will “remove food and health care from desperate people” and “deeply” harm the U.K.´s reputation.
“You have maintained that you want to continue support for Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine; for vaccination; for climate; and for rules-based systems,” said Dodds, who attended meetings of the Cabinet. “Yet it will be impossible to maintain these priorities given the depth of the cut; the effect will be far greater than presented.”
The increase in defense spending drew support from U.S. President Donald Trump but has been sharply criticized by aid agencies, who said it not only harmed some of the world’s poorest people but also reduced Britain’s soft power.
In her letter, Dodds said she held back from resigning earlier this week when the cut to the aid budget was announced as it was “imperative” Starmer had “a united Cabinet” behind him ahead of his trip to Washington to meet Trump on Thursday.
“It is for that reason that I am only writing to you now that your meeting with President Trump is over,” she added.
Dodds also said the decision to fund the the increase in defense spending by cutting foreign aid is “already being portrayed as following in President Trump´s slipstream of cuts to USAID.”
