Aid cuts will hurt ‘desperate people and harm UK’s reputation’ Dodds tells Starmer as she resigns – UK politics live

As Patrick Wintour, Rowena Mason and Peter Walker report, the cuts to the aid budget announced on Tueday, that triggered Anneliese Dodds’ resignation, will take UK development spending to its lowest level as a percentage of national income since records began, an analysis says.

Here is a profile of Anneliese Dodds by Kiran Stacey.

Here are some extracts from Anneliese Dodds’ resignation letter, as reported by Pippa Crerar.

On why Dodds thinks the government should look at alternative ways of raising defence spending

Undoubtedly the postwar global order has come crashing down. I believe that we must increase spending on defence as a result; and know that there are no easy paths to doing so.

I stood ready to work with you to deliver that increased spending, knowing some might well have had to come from overseas development assistance [ODA]. I also expected we would collectively discuss our fiscal rules and approach to taxation, as other nations are doing.

Even 3% [raising defence spending to 3% of GDP – the PM’s target for the next parliament] may only be the start, and it will be impossible to raise the substantial resources needed just through tactical cuts to public spending. These are unprecedented times, when strategic decisions for the sake of our country’s security cannot be ducked.

On how the impact of the cuts will be “far greater than presented”

You have maintained that you want to continue support for Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine; for vaccination; for climate; and for rules-based systems.

Yet it will be impossible to maintain these priorities given the depth of the cut; the effect will be far greater than presented, even if assumptions made about reducing asylum costs hold true.

The cut will also likely lead to a UK pull-out from numerous African, Caribbean and Western Balkan nations – at a time when Russia has been aggressively increasing its global presence.

It will likely lead to withdrawal from regional banks and a reduced commitment to the World Bank; the UK being shut out of numerous multilateral bodies; and a reduced voice for the UK in the G7, G20 and in climate negotiations.

All this while China is seeking to rewrite global rules, and when the climate crisis is the biggest security threat of them all.

On why she did not resign earlier this week

It was imperative that you had a united cabinet behind you as you set off for Washington. Your determination to pursue peace through strength for Ukraine is one I share.

It is for that reason that I am only writing to you now that your meeting with President Trump is over, and four days after you informed me of your decision to cut overseas development assistance to 0.3% of GNI.

On Dodds’ concern about Labour being seen to follow Trump

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. But the reality is that this decision is already being portrayed as following in President Trump’s slipstream of cuts to USAid.

On how Dodds will continue to support Starmer on other issues

While we differ profoundly on this decision, I remain proud of all that you have achieved since I backed you to be leader of the Labour party …

I wish you, and the government you command, every success for the future.

I will continue to support you, and the change you are determined to deliver – but now I shall do so from the backbenches.

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, Pippa Crerar reveals.

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, was doing an interview round this morning to promote an announcement about a new contract for GPs in England. He claims it will end the “8am scramble” for GP appointments.

Explaining how this would work, the Department of Health and Social Care says in its news release:

The new deal agreed yesterday (February 27) between the government and British Medical Association (BMA) will free up doctors from red tape and box-ticking targets to concentrate on what they do best – treating patients.

The new agreed contract will modernise general practice by requiring GP surgeries to allow patients to request appointments online throughout working hours from October, freeing up the phones for those who need them most, and making it easier for practices to triage patients based on medical need. The reforms are part of the government’s Plan for Change to make general practice fit for the future and will support GPs in taking the first steps to end the 8am scramble for appointments, which so many patients currently endure every day – in turn improving access to GPs for everyone.

Commenting on the plan, Streeting said

Today, we have taken the first step to fixing the front door to the NHS, bringing back the family doctor, and ending the 8am scramble.

Over the past decade, funding for GPs has been cut relative to the rest of the NHS, while the number of targets for GPs has soared. That’s why patients are struggling to get an appointment.

This government is cutting the red tape that ties up GPs time and backing them with an extra £889 million next year. In return, more patients will be able to request appointments online and see their regular doctor for each appointment.

Prisoners may have to earn their freedom through “good behaviour credits” rather than be automatically released after a set period as part of an overhaul being considered by the government, Aletha Adu reports.

Reform UK also received a credibility blow from what President Trump said last night. Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader who boasts about his close friendship with Trump, has for weeks now been repeatedly saying that members of the Trump administration are deeply concerned about the Chagos Islands deal. “I have been contacted by very senior officials and advisers from the incoming Republican administration, and every single one of them is appalled at this deal,” he told MPs in December. But now it is looking as if his inside knowledge of what the Trump team really think is not as reliable as he implied.

Farage has not been tweeting about the Trump/Starmer talks. But his fellow Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe has said that Trump is “wrong” on this issue. In a post on social media last night Lowe said:

The Chagos Islands deal is disgustingly rotten to the core. It does NOT serve the British taxpayer. It’s about human rights lawyers abusing their power to indulge their fantasies.

It’s a betrayal.

I hope that Donald Trump reconsiders his support for it.

On this, he is wrong.

On most issues Reform UK strongly supports Trump and his administration.

Good morning. Keir Starmer is back in the UK and, in the unlikely event that he goes into a newsagent’s this morning, he will find that his meeting with President Trump in the White House has secured him perhaps the most favourable press coverage he has had since the general election. Gloria De Piero, the broadcaster and former Labour MP, has the headlines laid out here.

Of course, the success of a government should never be judged by what the national newspapers are saying about it (few other performance indicators are less reliable), but after months of relentlessly critical press coverage, Starmer will be grateful for a spot of respite.

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has been giving interviews this morning and he told BBC Breakfast that the Starmer/Trump meeting was a “spectacular success”. He explained:

I thought that the meeting yesterday was a spectacular success both on the defence and security issues that President Trump and our prime minister were discussing but also on the enthusiasm President Trump showed for a deeper trading relationship.

Starmer helped to ensure that the visit went well by offering Trump an unprecedented second state visit to the UK. Theresa May offered a state visit when she visited Trump in 2017 and on GB News this morning Streeting was reminded that, after the May invitation, he was one of many people who signed an online petition saying the state visit should be called off. He “definitely” won’t be doing that again, he assured the programme.

Even Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative party leader, has had something good to say about the visit, admitting it secured some “positive outcomes”. But a statement she released late last night indirectly confirmed the result has been disappointing for her party. “Trump snubs Badenoch” is not the headline anyone was writing last night, but for CCHQ it is probably the takeaway that matters. The Tories have recently starting using the attack line that “when [Stamer] negotiates Britain loses”. Last night that went up in smoke, as Starmer’s negotiating skills got extravagant praise from Mr Art of the Deal himself. And on Wednesday the Conservative party explicitly said it wanted Trump to block the government’s Chagos Islands deal. Yesterday Trump did the opposite, signalling that he is inclined to approve it.

In her tweet last night Badenoch said the Tories will continue to oppose it.

The President’s words on the Chagos deal aren’t a guarantee it serves *our* national interest—or UK taxpayers.

We haven’t seen the final terms of a deal, but we mustn’t foot the bill for surrendering territory the UK already holds.

But with Trump apparently on side, Starmer will find it much easier to persuade parliament, and the public, that the deal is in the national interest. What until yesterday was a strong campaigning issue for the Tories has now lost quite a lot of its potency.

Here is Pippa Crerar’s story about the White House talks.

And you can read a comprehensive account on yesterday’s blog. There will be more reaction throughout the day.

Here is what is coming up.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

11.55am: Angela Rayner, the deputy PM, speaks at the Convention of the North in Preston.

12.30pm: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, and John Healey, the defence secretary, hold a roundtable meeting with the defence sector.

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