Kemi: I don't want males to check breasts

KEMI Badenoch says she would not want a man performing an "intimate" examination that checks for breast cancer.

- By Hanna Geissler Health Editor

The Tory leader spoke after the Society of Radiographers (SoR) said male health workers should be allowed to carry out mammograms to help tackle a staff shortage.

But Mrs Badenoch said she would "definitely want a woman", telling Times Radio: "I've had a mammogram, it is a very, very intrusive process.

"It involves the clinician holding both of your breasts for a long period of time, feeling them, manipulating them, putting them in the machine.

"I would not want a man doing that — I definitely would want a woman."

Mammography is the only health examination exclusively carried out by female staff.

Women aged 50 to 71 are invited every three years for the screening, which checks for cancers that are too small to see or feel.

But the SoR is calling for a change in policy amid "critical" staff shortages among mammographers - radiographers who specialise in breast imaging.

It said men might excel in the field but are being denied the chance because of their gender.