Sir Keir Starmer has been rocked with a shock resignation after Anneliese Dodds quit as International Development Minister over the Prime Minister’s decision to slash foreign aid.
Dodds, who served as Shadow Chancellor and was a close ally to the Prime Minister, quit her post just days after Starmer confirmed the cut will be used to plug a surge in defence spending.
In her letter to the Prime Minister, Dodds wrote: “Ultimately, these cuts will remove food and healthcare from desperate people – deeply harming the UK’s reputation.
“I know you have been clear that you are not ideologically opposed to international development.
Sir Keir Starmer has been rocked with a shock resignation after Anneliese Dodds quit as International Development MinisterPA“But the reality is that this decision is already being portrayed as following in President Trump’s slipstream of cuts to USAid.”
Starmer’s special relationship with Trump was also referred to when Dodds explained why she was only quitting her post now.
“As I stated to you earlier this week,” she explained, “it was imperative that you had a united Cabinet behind you as you set off for Washington.”
Dodds, who first entered the House of Commons as the MP for Oxford East in 2017, joins a number of Labour colleagues opposing the decision to axe foreign aid.
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Ex-Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbot described the decision as “shameful”.
Clive Lewis, who also served under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership as Shadow Defence Secretary, also argued Dodds’s resignation was a “big straw”.
Labour MPs were already mobilising ahead of a potential fightback against the decision to prioritise defence spending.
A group of around a dozen Labour MPs were involved in the backlash after the Prime Minister’s announcement on Tuesday.
An MP told The Times: “By retreating from the world, we will only spend more on the military down the line, long after Trump is gone.”
However, the Prime Minister could count on the praise of Reform UK and Tories MPs when it came to the surge in defence spending.
Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice quipped that the uplift was lifted straight from the populist party’s manifesto.
Meanwhile, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch appeared to suggest the Prime Minister had been inspired by her suggestion to increase spending on the Armed Forces last weekend.
Responding to Dodds’s shock resignation earlier today, the Prime Minister thanked her for her “tireless work to set this Government’s direction on equality and opportunity”.
He added: “The decision I have taken on the impact on ODA was a difficult and painful decision and not one I take lightly.”
Responding to Dodds’s shock resignation earlier today, the Prime Minister thanked her for her “tireless work to set this Government’s direction on equality and opportunity”
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However, Labour veteran Harriet Harman denied that Dodds’s decision to quit would impact Starmer.
Speaking to Sky News, Harman said: “I think that the truth is that there is such coherence in the Cabinet, and Keir Starmer’s political management of the Cabinet is so absolutely functional and strong, that although I don’t want to take away from Anneliese on this, actually it won’t make any difference to that.”
Dodds has witnessed a rapid political decline since she was appointed as Starmer’s Shadow Chancellor in April 2020.
The 46-year-old was demoted from her first key post just 13 months later and was pushed into yet another downgraded brief after the 2024 General Election triumph.
Following her resignation, Dodds will return to the backbenches for the first time since July 2017.