UK minister resigns over overseas aid cut

By AFP
March 01, 2025
Britains Minister for Development at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and women and Equalities Minister Anneliese Dodds leaves after attending a cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street in central London on February 11, 2025. — AFP
Britain's Minister for Development at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and women and Equalities Minister Anneliese Dodds leaves after attending a cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street in central London on February 11, 2025. — AFP

LONDON: UK international development minister Anneliese Dodds on Friday said she was resigning from the Labour government over cuts to overseas aid ordered by Prime Minister Keir Starmer to boost defence spending.

“Ultimately these cuts will remove food and healthcare from desperate people,” Dodds said in a letter to Starmer posted on X. Starmer on Tuesday pledged to raise UK defence spending to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2027, but ordered the overseas development budget to be cut from 0.5 percent to 0.3 percent of gross national income to pay for it.

Dodds said while she believed defence spending needed to be increased as “the postwar global order has come crashing down”, she had hoped for a collective discussion on finding the funding.