Minister quits in row over cuts to foreign aid budget

International development minister Anneliese Dodds has dramatically resigned from the government in protest at Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to slash the UK’s foreign aid budget.

- KATE DEVLIN

The minister, who attended cabinet, warned the move would bolster Russia, despite the prime minister’s claims the cash would be used to hike defence spending, and hit back at “tyrants” like Putin.

Her resignation will come as a blow to the prime minister after he jetted back to the UK following a crunch meeting with Donald Trump and before he holds an EU leaders’ summit on Ukraine this weekend.

She is the fourth minister who attended cabinet that he has lost since he came to power last summer. In her resignation letter to the prime minister, Ms Dodds wrote that it would now be “impossible” for the PM to stick to his commitments.

She added: “You have maintained that you want to continue support for Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine; for vaccination; for climate; and for rules-based systems. Yet it will be impossible to maintain these priorities given the depth of the cut; the effect will be far greater than presented, even if assumptions made about reducing asylum costs hold true.”

She said the swingeing cuts would “likely lead to a UK pullout from numerous African, Caribbean and western Balkan nations at a time when Russia has been aggressively increasing its global presence. All this while China is seeking to rewrite global rules, and when the climate crisis is the biggest security threat of them all.”