Bishop calls McConnell to account over his silence about Dungavel

: "The Scottish Socialists, meanwhile, were taking more direct action, with Ms Kane welcoming into her home Mercy Ikolo, 32, and her daughter Bessie, who had been held at Dungavel since August 17.

They were granted bail at a hearing in Glasgow when the Home Office offered no objection to the applicant staying with the MSP pending the outcome of her asylum application.

The Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees had a whip-round to raise the £100 bail, with Ms Kane contributing £40.

Ms Ikolo will live with Ms Kane at her two-bedroom flat in Govanhill, which she shares with her two teenage girls.

Tommy Sheridan, the SSP leader, said he was proud of his colleague. "Powerful ministers on huge salaries could apparently do nothing but Rosie Kane, armed only with compassion and courage, secured the release of a mother and her daughter from prison."

In a survey more than 20 MSPs backed outright closure of Dungavel. Positive Action Housing, a campaign group, asked 129 MSPs for their views on Dungavel, but received just 34 responses. Two-thirds of these supported closure: the SSP, Greens, Denis Canavan, the Independent MSP, eight of the nine SNP members, John Farquhar Munro, LibDem, and Elaine Smith, Labour." The Herald