Dodds has said that increased defence spending can’t be achieved through ‘tactical cuts’
Anneliese Dodds has resigned from Keir Starmer’s cabinet over the government’s decision to cut spending on international development from 0.5% to 0.3% of GDP. Dodds attended cabinet as the Minister for International Development and for Women and Equalities.
Her resignation comes after Starmer made a major announcement that the Labour government would be increasing spending on defence and funding this expenditure by cutting the budget for international aid.
In her resignation letter, Dodds said that while she shared Starmer’s view that ‘we must increase spending on defence’, However, she argued that it would not be possible to achieve the level of defence spending the UK needed through ‘tactical cuts to public spending’.
Later, she said that the scale of the cuts in international development spending would make it ‘impossible to maintain’ development priorities such as supporting ‘Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine’ and delivering programmes around vaccination and climate change.
In the strongest critique of the government’s new policy, Dodds said, “these cuts will remove food and healthcare from desperate people – deeply harming the UK’s reputation”.
Following Dodds’ resignation, the deputy prime minister Angela Rayner has reiterated the government’s view that the policy is the right one. She said: “It is really difficult decision that was made, but it was absolutely right that the prime minister and the cabinet endorsed the prime minister’s actions to spend more money on defence. We want to see the economy grow so that we can then get back to having more money to spend on things like overseas aid and on our public services.”
Her resignation, however, has been praised by leading politicians from the Green Party and the Lib Dems.
Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay tweeted to say: “A principled decision by Anneliese Dodds. And she’s right. Keir Starmer’s decision to cut the aid budget will prevent crucial support to war-torn countries. Support that is vital for our security. The Prime Minister’s decision is a dereliction of duty”.
Meanwhile, the Lib Dems’ international development spokesperson Monica Harding said: “Anneliese Dodds has done the right thing. The government’s position on the international aid cut is unsustainable.
“Increasing defence spending to 2.5% is the right thing to do as the global threats we face intensify. But doing so by cutting the international aid budget is like robbing Peter to pay Paul. The government hasn’t even carried out an impact assessment.
“Diplomacy, development and defence are not competing priorities – they are complementary. Where we withdraw our aid, it’s Russia and China who will fill the vacuum.”
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
Image credit: House of Commons – Creative Commons
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