IT was the morning after the fight before, and Bolton West MP Ruth Kelly was back in her constituency.

Just 24 hours before, she had been under siege in the Commons.

The row over sex offender Paul Reeve, who was allowed to teach in a Norfolk school, had forced her to defend her position as Education Secretary with a cool professionalism.

Her promises of a review and quick action had not deterred a hail of criticism from the opposition and elsewhere.

But on Friday, after Foreign Office minister Kim Howells admitted sanctioning Reeve's employment, the press pack moved from her doorstep to his - and Ruth Kelly was back with the people who first sent her to Parliament eight years ago.

The worry over possible sex offenders in schools is plainly set to continue, but life goes on and the MP faced a busy weekend of visits and meetings in Bolton.

Her first stop of the day was the Royal Bolton Hospital, where she is giving her backing to the campaign to make the local hospital a regional centre for maternity and children's services.

She visited youngsters and parents in the children's wards, and it was clear that, for this mother of four, this is all familiar territory.

She is slimmer and prettier than she appears on TV, an English rose complexion hardly touched by light make-up, wearing a cerise jacket, pale top and dark trousers with low-heeled shoes and a modern metal necklace.

She talks quietly to worried parents and smiles at the wan-looking youngsters. And people respond well to her - because she is a parent and she understands, and because she is a Government minister and might be able to get things done.

"Perhaps she can make a difference," says Gillian Welsby from Astley, who sits at the bedside of 14-year-old Jessica.

Her daughter's age poses a problem because she may need treatment more usually available on adult wards. Ruth Kelly acknowledges this is a problem, "Perhaps we can do something - we can keep that in mind", she promises, and that is the right medicine for them.

She may have a few official-looking people flanking her, including Bolton Hospitals Trust Board chairman Cllr Cliff Morris, but few heads turn as she walks through the hospital. It is her ordinariness they warm to personally, not the high-profile status of a remote minister.

She is genuine too, in her support of the hospital. Two of her four children were born in the Princess Anne Maternity Unit and she has high praise for its services and an infectious confidence in its possible role providing centralised services. There may be voices raised against her, both home and away, over the sensitive issues involved in this latest political row. But, for now, it is MP business as usual.

A rendezvous with Horwich residents about street lighting, local celebrations for the Parliamentary Labour Party's centenary, regular constituents' surgeries . . . they are all on her weekend diary.

Then it is back to London, and Parliament, and the battle ahead.