UK PM Sunak welcomes Air India deal for 250 Airbus jets

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has welcomed a major deal with Air India for Airbus jets and aircraft by Rolls Royce. The deal is expected to boost jobs and exports from the United Kingdom.

Sunak has welcomed a major deal with Air India to buy 250 jets from Airbus as well as a 40-body A350 aircraft powered by Rolls Royce engines that are produced and assembled in Derby. The British department for business and trade said the deal would create 450 manufacturing jobs and bring in over $122 million of investment to Wales, where Airbus manufactures wings.

Meanwhile, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday that Sunak and finance minister Jeremy Hunt are considering a deal that would end the wave of strikes among the country’s public sector workers backdating next year’s pay rise. Sunak and Hunt are considering giving the staff of the National Health Service and other key workers a lump-sum payment by backdating next year’s pay award that takes effect from April, according to officials familiar with the matter.

The British Department of Health and Social Care said health minister Steve Barclay has held discussions with healthcare unions regarding what is affordable and fair for the 2023-24 pay review body process including wider concerns on pay, conditions, and workload.

“We want to strike the right balance between what is fair for public sector workers and what the taxpayer – ordinary people across the UK – can afford,” the department said in a statement.

An increase in public sector pay by five percent for 2023-24 has a “low risk” of protracting high private sector pay growth, six percent would worsen inflation, and seven percent would “pose a significant risk” and potentially result in higher interest rates, according to the Financial Times.

On the same day, the British government said it plans to mark the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with a national moment of silence as the country continues to show solidarity with Kyiv following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit this month.

Sunak will be leading a one-minute silence on February 24, encouraging citizens and organizations across the country to take part.