Prime Minister Keir Starmer issued a formal state apology in the House of Commons on Thursday for the United Kingdom’s historical forced adoption practices, describing them as a “stain on our history.” Between 1949 and 1976, an estimated 185,000 babies of unmarried mothers in England and Wales were separated from their parents and placed for adoption, often under coercive pressure from hospitals, social services, and religious institutions. Starmer told Parliament that the state bore responsibility for the systems it funded and legitimised, and announced measures including improved access to adoption records and dedicated mental health support for those affected.

The apology marks a clear reversal of the previous Conservative government’s position. In 2023, the UK government declined to issue a formal apology, arguing that the state had not actively supported the practices. The devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales had already issued their own apologies that year. The Church of England, which ran many of the mother-and-baby homes involved, offered its own apology two weeks ago, with the Archbishop of Canterbury acknowledging the “pain, trauma and stigma” caused. The Joint Committee on Human Rights, a cross-party parliamentary body, had recommended a state apology in 2022, concluding that public institutions and state employees had “railroaded mothers into unwanted adoptions.”

Campaigners and survivors, who watched the statement from the public gallery, have fought for decades for official recognition of the harm inflicted. According to testimony gathered by British media and parliamentary inquiries, unmarried mothers—many of them teenagers—were routinely told they were unfit to raise their children, denied the chance to see their newborns, and subjected to procedures without consent. One former MP, Ann Keen, recounted being stitched without anaesthetic after childbirth and told she would “remember the pain” because she had been “a bad girl.” The prime minister’s address directly addressed this legacy, stating: “The shame is not yours. The shame was never yours. The shame is ours.”

The apology does not close the dossier. In Northern Ireland, a formal apology is expected only after a public inquiry, following a 2021 report on mother-and-baby institutions, Magdalene laundries, and workhouses. The UK government’s announcement of support measures stops short of a compensation scheme, a demand that some survivors’ groups continue to press. Viewed from Canberra, the apology places the UK alongside Australia, which issued a landmark national apology for forced adoptions in 2013. The next concrete step, according to Downing Street, will be the implementation of the promised access and mental health provisions, though no legislative timetable has yet been set.