EXCL: Anneliese Dodds, the international development minister, has quit her post over Keir Starmer’s decision to slash the international aid budget by almost half to pay for a generational increase in defence spending.
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All the leftie gobshites shouting " don't cut foreign aid" but they are TOTALLY SILENT on from where the necessary new money for defence should come. Education? Benefits? NHS ? Silence is the reply.....
No, I’m pretty sure people have been demanding an increase taxes on the ultra-wealthy, the non-doms, and foreign-owned global corporations who pay virtually no corporation tax in the UK for a long time now.
Maybe people just aren’t talking to you, personally?
Fully respect her for what she has done. You would think patriots that are rich would be willing to pay a little more to help out but it's always the most vulnerable that should suffer and rich people and farmers prove that in the past few months.
The choice is cut aid programs or increase taxes. This applies here and in US of u want to break the addiction to borrowing that started in 2010 and ultra low interest
So increase taxes. Cutting aid is a strategic mistake as well as an ethical one. We need the soft power that is a by product of our support to maintain influence and prevent China/Russia et al from gaining influence. Losing it will harm our defence as well as damaging lives in poorer countries
Who’s taxes. I remember in 2010 ppl calling out to cut benefits. An elderly lady was all for it. The reporter asked about cutting free TV licence, bus pass. She said, no not those taxes.
So what taxes should govt raise? It would be a tough sell to the public.Govt view raise taxes stop growth
Personally I’d like to see digital services taxed and regulated more. That’s firms like Amazon, Google , Facebook etc. Might encourage ppl back to high st.
It's strategic nonsense to cut International Aid.. it helps our enemies like russia & China, cutting int aid harms international trade & helps feed the numbers of migrants .. International Aid is soft power exponentially increased
It's unlikely to go down as this govt's finest moment, sure, but it's also not the end of overseas aid. The cut appears to be the sum the previous govt were inappropriately spending on asylum care *within* UK borders. Won't achieve much in defence terms, so resignation perhaps over-reaction.
In her resignation letter, seen by The Guardian, she warns that pulling back from development will bolster Russia, which has already been aggressively increasing its presence worldwide, as well as encouraging China’s attempts to rewrite global rules.
Russia & China are her key arguments. It tells you everything you'll ever need to know about UK aid. It is intensely political & has nothing to do with alleviating poverty. Dodds is right UK foreign policy is being compromised, but let's not for a second pretend she ever gave a shit about the poor.
This tells you everything you need to know about British aid, namely that it's intensely political & has nothing to do with alleviating poverty. Dodds is right British foreign policy objectives are being compromised, but let us not for one second pretend she ever gave a shit about the poor.
interesting positioning going on .. for some time China has been building infrastructure across the African continent in return for rights and ownership of natural resources .. Russia was doing this too… and now USA in Ukraine. China is often first - its ahead in tech but watch it become No1 in Aid
Aside from making Trump happy, what is the justification for increasing defense spending? I saw the LibDems are also in favour of doing that even though they had no clue what to spend the extra on!
She also predicted the prime minister would find it “impossible” to deliver on his commitment to maintain development spending in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine with the diminished budget. Full story 👇
So where does she suggest the PM finds the money to fulfil a primary duty to protect the nations defences when there is a huge budget deficit? We can't outspend China & others in Foreign Aid & investment even without a deficit.
Increase taxes for the wealthiest by a small amount, maybe? And act more aggressively to close the £35bn annual gap between taxes which are owed and those which are actually paid.
This idea of 'finding the money' for this stuff is Tory nonsense we need to get away from. They like to pretend we have a pile of cash somewhere and if we want to spend a billion pounds in one place we have to take it from another. But that's nonsense. Especially if the money is invested usefully
Really proud of my local MP for taking this principled stand. I hope that the government can be persuaded to think again on this decision, which seems both morally wrong and against the UK's long-term interests.
Ok. I hear you and sympathise but…..Without cutting foreign aid, where does the money come from to increase defence spending? Genuinely open to suggestions (increasing the top rate of income tax by anything less than 5% won’t be enough though btw)
She doesn't need to, it's for the PM to determine priorities & funding. Labour economics have been all about saving, & economists have scratched their heads. For investments, it is much better to borrow than to find/save money in already struggling depts. Labour runs the country like a family shop.
Who are you defending against? Every pound sent to Ukraine destroys five pounds of Russian military assets. Sounds more cost effective than stockpiling ammunition.
I'm allowed to think they've made a mistake, without having my own programme of 'here's where the £xbn should come from'. Agreed there are difficult choices to make, I just don't think this is the right one - you obviously disagree - that's fine.
Honest reaction from Dodds an honest politician, I suspect that the decision to cut the aid budget was tricky, for a serious politician like Starmer. It is a difficult balance, only time will tell if cutting aid to pay for defence or offence will pay off. @pippacrerar.bsky.social @theguardian.com
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Maybe people just aren’t talking to you, personally?
https://youtu.be/D8vt7hXlqZM?si=e9J3KPbIo0Ll-0XM
So what taxes should govt raise? It would be a tough sell to the public.Govt view raise taxes stop growth
No.
No
Now #Labour have cut it again, just like the Tories to please #Trump and Farage.
They could have taxed Billionaires !
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Starve the UK & world poor ✅
We wouldn't have any of this woke latte avocado on toast nonsense then.
If we are not free there will be no development fund at all!
The first duty of the state is to defend us!
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/28/anneliese-dodds-resigns-keir-starmer-cut-aid-budget
Somehow I don't think it'll really happen. A lot of smoke.
More a way to blind-side the criticism about a balanced budget or we need to spend on (defending) ourselves.
Hope that she's back in another role ASAP.
It’s easy to criticise when you offer not alternatives.
Rachel "I'm an economist" Reeves is on the case.
Britain is going to be rolling in cash any minute now.
"And the disabled and the poor are going to pay for it"....
This government needs to stop punching down to fund projects.
Use wealth taxes. 🤷♂️
Starmer's rhetoric on defence needs to be backed with much higher funding ... but from wealth taxes.