Climbdown on abortion heads off Tory rebellion US artists help celebrate Mela

May U-turn on funding terminations from Northern Ireland secures vote

yesterday to continue cutting the pay of our nurses, firefighters, police and other public sector workers. And today, they were forced to finally promise that women from Northern Ireland will no longer have to pay for abortions on the NHS under opposition and public pressure.

“This Government is out of control with no mandate for continued cuts to our schools, hospitals, police and other vital public services or for a race-to-the-bottom Brexit. Labour will oppose these policies every step of the way,” added Mr Corbyn.

But the Labour leader faced his own rebellion .

He was forced to assert his authority by sacking three frontbenchers who defied the Labour whips’ order to abstain on an amendment, tabled by Chukka Umunna, the former SCOTLAND’S largest multicultural celebration, the Glasgow Mela, returns to the west end of Glasgow this weekend.

This artist, from the Siddhendra Kuchipudi Arts Academy in New Jersey, is among hundreds from Scotland, India, Pakistan and the US taking to Kelvingrove Park’s bandstand on Sunday until late in the evening, with further events in the park.

Mela chair woman and councillor Christina Cannon said it would be a “glorious celebration” of “cultures and communities”. STAFF at a children’s charity have been accused of sexually abusing dozens of young people in their care over six decades.

Barnardo’s – one of the UK’s largest children’s charities – accepted that abuse had taken place in some of the seven children’s homes they ran, during a hearing at the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry yesterday.

Of 3,600 children looked after by the charity since the end of the Second World War, 44 had made formal allegations of abuse.

The charity admitted that some children had been groomed by people connected to their homes, and said there was a conviction in 2004 of a staff member who sexually and physically abused two boys in Glasclune Home, North Berwick, with his crimes dating back to the 1970s.

An unnamed priest, a visiting vicar and fellow children were among those also accused of abusing young people in Barnardo’s care.

The inquiry heard the abuse appeared to go unchecked because home superintendents were seen as all-powerful and the children often felt they had nowhere to turn for help.

It also heard parents were seen as being an “irritation” to Barnardo’s staff once a child had been placed. It was claimed siblings were often separated and contact with their family was discouraged.

Vulnerable children – many from troubled backgrounds – were welcomed into Barnardo’s and told they were joining “the largest family in the world”.

Asked by James Peoples, inquiry senior counsel, about the allegations of child abuse, Sara Clarke, senior assistant director, children’s services at Barnardo’s, suggested misconduct had not been widespread.

“The decisions of individual staff members are not indicative of systemic failure,” she said.

She added: “There is a recognition that we didn’t always get it right.”