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I seem to have become obsessed with cleaning this week.

Not mine, but that done on behalf of our MPs.

You'll have already seen from earlier posts about the hot water some have got into.

So far three of our MPs - Phil Willis (Harrogate), John Cummings (Easington) and Nick Brown (Newcastle East) - have had to make repayments on cleaning claims.

Denis Murphy (Wansbeck) is disputing another claim.

By my reckoning, Stephen Byers (Tyneside North) may also be asked to pay money back but he's not commented on his Legg letter so far.

But there's one issue I was keen to look at.

All week our MPs have been talking about the high cost of hiring cleaners in London.

So to test the (mop) water, I filmed with a Tyneside cleaner this week. They were charging £9 an hour.

Then I got in touch with some cleaning agencies in London as a comparison.

I got five quotes and four out of five were asking the same £9 an hour as the cleaner in Newcastle.

I wouldn't claim it was exhaustive research but it does cast some doubt on just how much more expensive Mr and Mrs Mop are to hire in the capital.

By the way, you may have got a little frisson of excitement when you saw the house that was being cleaned in the programme.

You may have thought you'd finally gone "Through the Keyhole" and got a glimpse into the palatial, high-style pad that is Moss Towers.

Sorry to disappoint you though - it was actually the house of one of our tame cleaner Angela's clients.

My cats I'm afraid weren't prepared to let the camera into the Moss inner sanctum. They guard their privacy jealously.

I must though thank Angela's customers for letting us into their home.

I doubt whether they ever thought their abode would be used to talk about John Cummings' expenses!

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