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International development minister Anneliese Dodds resigned on Friday in protest at Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to fund a £6bn defence spending increase by slashing the UK’s aid budget.
“Ultimately, these cuts will remove food and healthcare from desperate people — deeply harming the UK’s reputation,” she said in a letter to the prime minister.
Starmer said this week the annual increase in military spending by 2027 would be funded entirely by cutting the UK’s £15.3bn aid budget from 0.5 per cent of gross national income to 0.3 per cent.
Before winning office last year, the Labour party had denounced cuts to international aid made by the previous Conservative government.
This is a developing story