Dodds quits as minister over cuts to aid budget

Anneliese Dodds, the international development minister, resigned yesterday over Keir Starmer's decision to slash the international aid budget by almost half to pay for an increase in defence spending, warning it could allow Russia and China to increase their global influence.

- Pippa Crerar

Her departure, just hours after Starmer returned from a widely lauded trip to Washington for crucial talks with Donald Trump on Ukraine, came as a blow to the prime minister as concerns grew that the aid cut could ultimately damage the UK's national security interests.

The senior Labour MP, who attended cabinet, predicted that the UK pulling back from international development would bolster Moscow, which has already been aggressively increasing its presence worldwide, as well as encourage Beijing's attempts to rewrite global rules.

In a further setback to his commitment to maintain development spending in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine, she predicted the government would find it "impossible" with the diminished budget, which will fall by about £6bn by 2027. But Dodds said she firmly believed that Starmer was right to increase defence spending and recognised there were no "easy paths" to take to boost defence spending.

She said she had been prepared for some cuts to the aid budget to help pay for the plan to increase military spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 and an ambition to hit 3% in the next parliament. But the former shadow chancellor said she believed Starmer's 3% ambition "may only be the start", given the tumultuous global picture, and urged the government to look at other ways of raising the money.

In response, Starmer praised the departing minister while defending his decision to cut the aid budget.