Development Minister resigns to protest Keira Starmer’s assistance

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The Minister of International Development Anneliz Dods on Friday resigned in protest against Sir Keira Starmer’s decision to finance the 6 billion pound defense, reducing the UK assistance budget, as a sign of a political fee to work more closely.

“Ultimately, these cuts will remove food and medical help from desperate people – deeply harming the reputation of the UK,” Dods said in a letter to the Prime Minister.

Starmer on Tuesday announced an annual 6 billion pounds Increasing military costs By 2027, they stated that this would be fully financed by reducing the remedy budget in the UK at the amount of £ 15.3 billion with 0.5 percent of gross national income to 0.3 percent.

The sharp departure of Dodsa notes the first resignation of the Minister of Ministers on the principle of policy since Starmer took the post last July.

He speaks of more concern among the deputies of work works on decisions made by the left Central Party in politics, ranging from benefits to welfare against a tough financial background.

According to the Library of the House of Commons, the budget for reducing assistance will be £ 9.2 billion, but approximately half of this amount can be spent at the domestic level, including housing seeking asylum.

Last year, the general labor manifesto promised to reduce the costs to 0.7 percent “as soon as financial circumstances”.

The announcement of the Space Space Defense Expenditure preceded his visit on Thursday to meet with US President Donald Trump, which called on NATO Washington partners to increase defense costs.

The Trump administration also did not close the US Agency for International Development, Main Channel for Assistance and Development programs for $ 43 billion a year.

“I know you realized that you were not ideologically against international development,” Dods wrote Starmer. “But the reality is that the decision is already reflected as the following in the sliding of President Trump to USAID.”

She added that it would be “impossible” to support Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine, as well as vaccination and climate support programs, “given the depth of the reduction.”

Before winning power last year, the Labor Party announced a reduction in international aid made by the previous conservative government.

Dods, which is left to the party, was the Chancellor of Shadows in 2020 and cited criticism When Chancellor Rishi Syska had reduced the costs to Tori’s aid, breaking his party’s own manifesto.

She was only told about the Starmer’s plan to cut the budget on Monday, Dods confirmed in her letter. She added that she was behind the departure until the Prime Minister returned from Washington.

Starmer said in a letter in response to Dods: “The decision I made on the impact on ODA was a difficult and excruciating decision, not the one I accept lightly.

“We will do our best to return to the world where it is not, and restore the possibility of development,” he wrote. “However, the protection of our national security should always be the first duty of any government, and I will always act in the interests of the British people.”

The Prime Minister also promised to continue to support the worse zones of conflicts of Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan.

Almost a third of the budget for help in the UK was spent on the supply of the domestic shelter in 2023.

Analysis of the Center for the Analytical Center of Global Development revealed that even if the costs in the UK decreased by 30 percent, the actual UK costs on international aid will be closer to 0.17 percent of GNI, which is the lowest in G7.

In a letter on Thursday, Lord Mark Malkh-Branun, a former UN Secretary-General and the Minister of Government Gordon Brown, told Starmer together with diplomatic and academic figures to urgently look at the alternatives to pay for the cost protection, including the introduction of the defensive retailer.

“Further weakening of the UK’s commitment to international development risks that enhance the most global instability and security threats that increase defense costs are trying to solve,” the signatories wrote.

Starmer This week’s increasing protection costs will need a total military budget in the UK up to 2.5 percent of GDP.

He added that in the next parliament, which is expected to operate from 2029 to 2034, the UK would strive to reach 3 percent of GDP.

In her letter, Dods acknowledged that the post -war world order “crashed”, demanding higher defense costs, but said she expected a collective discussion of financial rules of work and a tax approach.

One labor deputy stated that “Dodsa’s resignation” was pulled out: “Absolutely stretched. She was brilliant, she worked so much, never complained that she was regularly put in completely impossible positions and was always loyal.”

Dods was one of the several left supporters of the front part who were in the original Starmer shadow office but were canceled when the work leader moved the party to the right.

She was Reduced in May 2021 From the Chancellor of Shadows to the party chairman and last July, the Minister of Development and the Minister for Women and Equality received the role.