Starmer to issue formal apology to mothers and children harmed by historic forced adoption policies – UK politics live

Starmer said what happened to the mothers, and their children, should never have happened. He said:

double quotation mark What happened to them, and to tens of thousands of mothers, children, and families, should never have happened. It is a stain on our history.

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.

These were not isolated or accidental acts, 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.

All institutions that operated with power over people’s lives, yet they did so without compassion, without consent, and without dignity or proper safeguards. These practices were particularly prevalent between 1949 and 1976 but also extended beyond those years.