PA MediaInternational Development Minister Anneliese Dodds has resigned over the prime minister’s cuts to the aid budget.
Earlier this week, Sir Keir Starmer announced funding would be reduced from 0.5% of gross national income to 0.3% in 2027 in order to fund an increase in defence spending.
Defending the move, the prime minister said it was “not a decision I wanted to make” but added there was “no driver of migration and poverty like conflict”.
In a letter to the prime minister, Dodds said the cuts would “remove food and healthcare from desperate people – deeply harming the UK’s reputation”.
She added that the cut would “also likely lead to a UK pull-out from numerous African, Caribbean and Western Balkan nations – at a time when Russia has been aggressively increasing its global presence”.
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