Annabel Denham

The BMA shouldn’t look down on cleaners

Philip Banfield, Chair of the British Medical Association (photo: Getty)

During the lockdown, there was a cohort of workers who toiled through the night in what was described as a ‘fairly thankless job that is taken for granted day to day.’ Those workers were cleaners, who decontaminated buses and trains so that commuters could remain safe. We didn’t clap for them on our doorsteps, nor did they even receive the inadequate praise we gave to supermarket shelf stackers or lorry drivers. 

It is telling that these workers were the subject of Professor Phil Banfield’s disdain earlier this week. The Head of the British Medical Association’s council appeared outraged that junior doctors – whose takeaway salaries average around £37,000 (not including a pension) – could in theory earn less than he pays his cleaner.  

We’ve come to expect this kind of snobbery from certain sections of British society, which have a growing hostility towards the working classes and a mountain of self-righteousness.

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