In the first week back after the Conference recess, Parliament was of course dominated by the ongoing situation in the Middle East. There are no winners and losers here: the loss of any and all civilian life matters and is a tragedy. My own position is clear: Israel has a right to defend itself and to retrieve hostages but the protection of innocent civilians in Gaza is imperative. International law must be upheld and humanitarian aid must be able to enter to help those in need.

I wrote to the Foreign Secretary on behalf of a number of constituents who had raised specific questions last week and will be following up with him again on the importance of being certain international law is upheld, rather than simply repeating that this must be the case. I also attended several meetings with Labour colleagues to discuss the ongoing crisis and highlight the views of constituents who have contacted me in recent weeks.

I have received several thousand letters, emails and petitions about Israel and Palestine with many different views expressed. Please be assured that while I am not able to provide an individualised response to so many pieces of correspondence I am reading all of these messages and am grateful to everyone who has been in touch to make their feelings known. I will of course keep those who have been in touch updated.

The other significant item of business before the Commons last week was the Levelling Up Bill which returned on Tuesday for consideration of amendments put forward by the House of Lords. There were 17 votes lasting more than three hours in which I voted against rejecting the Lords amendments. This is a wide ranging and important Bill and I felt many of the proposals from the Lords would have strengthened it significantly.

I was very frustrated during the Recess period to learn that the Secretary of State for Transport had approved the Transport and Works Order to enable an eightfold increase to the toll charge to cross the Warburton Bridge. This is a vital link for many of my constituents, and many local businesses whose employees travel to work utilising this bridge. To increase the toll by such a significant amount in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis seems grossly unreasonable.

There is a particular impact for residents in Partington and Carrington and on Thursday at Business Questions I asked the Leader of the House why their voice had been disregarded in the decision making process when the community had spoken in unity to oppose the toll increase. Sadly no useful response was forthcoming but I will continue to look at options for challenging this decision.

As ever I dropped into several events in Parliament around votes, speaking in the Chamber and my whipping duties. The most important of these was organised by Breast Cancer Now to mark Breast Cancer Awareness Week. I received the latest figures for Stretford and Urmston and it is clear that the local health system needs to do more to increase uptake of screening in the local community.

I was also pleased to attend a really interesting event on audio-visual therapy. I must confess this was something that I had not previously known much about. The therapy – which is not currently routinely available – supports children with hearing difficulties who undergo treatment such as cochlea implants as they adapt to being able to hear sounds for the first time. I will be following up on this to understand what support is available to children in Stretford and Urmston.

Back in the constituency I was invited to open a fundraiser for Breast Cancer Now which had again been organised to mark Breast Cancer Awareness Week. The volunteers who had arrange the event at Gorse Hill Community Church had done a brilliant job and all funds will go towards funding life changing research to help prevent breast cancer in future.

It was great to see Labour win two crucial by-elections in Tamworth and Mid-Bedfordshire on Thursday. Locally I was pleased to be able to support Labour’s candidate for the Bucklow St Martins by-election, Frances Cosby, on Saturday morning. Fran and the team are working incredibly hard ahead of the election on November 2nd. Postal votes have now arrived – if you’ve received yours, please don’t hesitate to send it back.