John Reid claimed yesterday that the government is "really putting cleaners and cleanliness back at the centre of our campaign against MRSA" - the best known of the superbugs.

The health secretary was responding to allegations by Unison, the public sector union, that a decline in the number of cleaners used by the NHS was linked to the rise in the incidence of MRSA.

Unison says the number of cleaners has fallen because of the introduction of outsourcing.

Meanwhile, the Business Services Association says hopes that National Health Service trusts will spend more money on cleaning hospitals are "no more than a pipe dream".