'The shame is not yours': Starmer apologises for state's role in forced adoptions
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'The shame is not yours': Starmer apologises for state's role in forced adoptions
UK’s Starmer apologises for the state’s role in decades of forced adoptions
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ByIan Aikman and Tom McArthurPublished2 July 2026, 08:22 BSTUpdated 5 hours agoSir Keir Starmer has apologised on behalf of the British state for its role in historical forced adoptions in England and Wales.
An estimated 185,000 babies were taken from their mothers in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, with women pressured into giving up their children because they were unmarried. In a statement in the House of Commons, Sir Keir said what happened to "tens of thousands of mothers, children and families" was "a stain on our history". "The shame is not yours.
The shame was never yours. The shame is ours," he said. The apology comes after years of campaigning from mothers, adoptees and their wider families, and parliamentary reports into the issue.
No compensation scheme has been put in place, but a £4 million support package over three years has been announced for better access to adoption records and improved family reunion services. Sir Keir said: "Mothers, many young, vulnerable, and without support were coerced, bullied, or misled into feeling that they had no choice but to have their children taken away from them. What a thing to do." Sir Keir said the forced adoptions were not isolated or accidental acts, but were practices "embedded" across local authorities, religious organisations and parts of what is now the NHS.
"All institutions that operated with power over people's lives, yet they did so without compassion, without consent, and without dignity or proper safeguards" he told the Commons.
How 🌍 Al Jazeera Covers It
xwhatsapp-strokecopylinkgoogleAdd Al Jazeera on GoogleinfoBy AFP and ReutersPublished On 2 Jul 20262 Jul 2026United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer has issued a formal apology over the forced adoption of babies born to unmarried British mothers in the decades after World War II, describing the scheme as a “stain on our history”. Between 1949 and 1976, the British government and Christian churches oversaw a system that coerced and shamed mothers – many of whom were teenagers – into giving up their babies. An estimated 185,000 children were forcibly adopted.
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