UK international development minister Anneliese Dodds announced her resignation on Friday, February 28, 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.

On Tuesday, February 25, Starmer pledged to raise UK defence spending to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2027 but ordered the overseas development budget to be reduced from 0.5 percent to 0.3 percent of gross national income to fund the increase.

Dodds said while she agreed that defence spending needed to rise as “the post-war global order has come crashing down,” she had hoped for a collective discussion on securing the funds. “Instead, the tactical decision was taken for ODA to absorb the entire burden,” she said, referring to overseas development assistance.

Starmer admitted in his reply that cutting aid funding was “a difficult and painful decision.” “However, protecting our national security must always be the first duty of any government,” he added.

Starmer later announced that his long-time ally Jenny Chapman would take over as international development minister. Dodds expressed concerns that plans to assist people in Gaza, Ukraine, and Sudan, as well as efforts to support climate change initiatives and vaccination programmes, would now be jeopardised.

“It will be impossible to maintain these priorities given the depth of the cuts,” Dodds warned. She added that the decision would “likely lead to a UK pull-out from numerous African, Caribbean and Western Balkan nations.”

Starmer sought to reassure her, stating that his government would “continue to protect vital programmes, including in the world’s worst conflict zones.” Dodds is the fourth minister to leave Starmer’s cabinet since Labour’s victory in last year’s elections, which ended 14 years of Conservative rule.

Earlier this month, Starmer sacked junior health minister Andrew Gwynne for making anti-Semitic, racist, and sexist remarks in a WhatsApp chat.

In January, anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq resigned after being named in graft investigations in Bangladesh. In November, Louise Haigh stepped down as transport secretary after it was revealed that she had pleaded guilty to a criminal offence before becoming a member of parliament.