Starmer tells forced adoption survivors the scandal blackened the nation’s history in apology
Sir Keir Starmer has offered a formal apology on behalf of the state for the scandal of historical forced adoptions, telling mothers whose babies were taken from them: “The shame was never yours, the shame is ours.” In a statement to Parliament, the prime minister described the practice, which was widespread in the decades after the Second World War, as a “stain on our history”. Women who had been forced to give up their children watched from the public gallery, some wiping away tears as the apology was delivered.
No exact figure exists, but an estimated 185,000 babies of unmarried mothers were adopted in England and Wales between 1949 and 1976 – a period framed by two Adoption Acts that made the process quicker, more secretive and, after 1976, allowed “freeing orders” that removed parents’ legal rights. The prime minister said what happened to “tens of thousands of mothers, children and families – should never have happened”. Mothers, he said, were “coerced, bullied or misled into feeling they had no choice but to have their children taken from them”.
A systemic failure, not isolated acts
Starmer emphasised that these were not isolated incidents. “They were practices embedded within systems across local authorities, across voluntary and faith-based institutions, and in health and social care services, including parts of what is now the NHS,” he said. “All institutions that operated with power over people’s lives, yet they did so without compassion, without consent, and without dignity or proper safeguards. Children grew up believing they were unwanted. Young mothers were told they were immoral – and that their babies were better off without them.”
The period was characterised by what campaigners and official reports have described as a “culture of shame, stigma and secrecy”. Unmarried mothers were judged as sinful, immoral and taboo. Societal and familial pressures, combined with an absence of support, pushed women into giving up their babies. Many were sent to mother-and-baby homes run by the Church of England, Catholic agencies and the Salvation Army, where they gave birth in secret and were compelled to hand over their children. Survivors have spoken of suffering verbal abuse, denial of pain relief and being prevented from any contact with their babies. One former Labour MP, Ann Keen, who gave birth at 17 in 1966, described how she was stitched without anaesthetic and told: “‘You will remember the pain, because you’ve been a bad girl.'”
The apology acknowledges a systemic failure in which the state, by funding and legitimising these systems, bears responsibility for the harm caused. The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) had called for a state apology in 2022, stating that “the government bears ultimate responsibility for the pain and suffering caused by public institutions and state employees that railroaded mothers into unwanted adoptions”. Despite that, the then-Conservative government in 2023 expressed regret “on behalf of society” but declined a formal apology, arguing the state “did not actively support these practices”.
Apologies had already been issued by the Welsh and Scottish governments in 2023. Two weeks ago, the Church of England also apologised for its role, with Archbishop of Canterbury Dame Sarah Mullally telling survivors the “shame is ours” and expressing deep sorrow for the “pain, trauma and stigma” caused. In Northern Ireland, an apology is expected but only after a public inquiry into mother-and-baby institutions, Magdalene laundries and workhouses – a process survivors will help co-design.
Alongside the apology, the government announced a £4 million support package over three years to help individuals access their adoption records, fund intermediary services for family reconnection and support testimonial projects documenting the long-term impact. Campaigners have long called for fast-tracked, trauma-informed counselling and better access to records, and the government has committed to improving mental health support. The JCHR report had specifically recommended improved access to records and complaint mechanisms for birth mothers.
Campaigner reactions: “So sad” that so many are not here
For decades, mothers and adoptees have campaigned for justice. Adults who were removed as children have spoken of a “harmful narrative” that claimed adoption had saved them, while many grew up believing they were unwanted and were denied access to their records and medical history. Veronica Smith, who co-founded the Movement for an Adoption Apology (MAA) in 2010 after her own daughter was taken from her in the mid-1960s, died in June 2024. She had described the experience as having “blighted her life” and later suffered a breakdown in 1990. Her daughter was only reunited with her after the birth of Veronica’s granddaughter.
Diana Defries, current chairwoman of the MAA, had her own baby daughter forcibly adopted when she was just 16 in the 1970s. Speaking after the apology, she said the moment would be tinged with sadness because so many of those who fought for it will not hear it. “Campaigners have been working for decades, long before me,” she said. “And the worst part is that I stepped into a dead woman’s shoes to keep it going and it’s a tragedy for me personally and obviously for her family that she’s not here. It’s hugely poignant. It’s great that they are actually doing something and that they’re acknowledging this injustice but it’s so sad that these people who worked tirelessly for a very long time won’t be part of it.” She added that other long-time campaigners were now too frail to be part of the day.
Sir Keir earlier told campaigners gathered in Downing Street that they had suffered a “double injustice” because of the long wait for state recognition. The apology arrives almost exactly two years after Ms Smith’s death. Internationally, similar reckonings have taken place: Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard delivered a national apology in 2013 for forced adoptions, acknowledging a “lifelong legacy of pain and suffering”, while Ireland has been reckoning with the legacy of mother-and-baby homes where an inquiry found 9,000 children died. For the women and children affected in the UK, the prime minister’s words in Parliament were clear: “The shame was never yours, the shame is ours.”
