Labour MP calls for ministers to apologise over historic forced adoption scandal

The UK Government should apologise for the forced adoption scandal, a Labour MP has said, as he called for all documentation on historic adoptions to be kept.

Adam Jogee (Newcastle-under-Lyme) said a minister should issue an apology on behalf of the Westminster Government to the unmarried mothers who gave up around 185,000 children over a 25-year period.

Administrations in Cardiff and Holyrood have previously said sorry to those affected.

Speaking for the Government, Commons leader Sir Alan Campbell said the practice was “abhorrent” and extended his “deepest sympathies”.

Speaking during Business Questions, Mr Jogee said: “The forced adoption scandal has outraged people in Newcastle-under-Lyme and up and down the country.

“This week I heard from Karen Constantine, who gave birth aged 15 in the late 1970s. She was forced out of education in north Staffordshire, into a mothers’ and baby home in Birmingham and pressured to give up her child.

“While she didn’t give up her child, and fought really hard against the forced behaviour of others, other women weren’t so fortunate.

“So will the leader join me in calling on local authorities to preserve and protect all adoption records, so mothers are able to get the justice that they deserve and find their children?

“Secondly, can I urge him as leader to do all he can to get a formal apology from the despatch box to women who so desperately deserve justice?”

Around 185,000 children were taken from unmarried mothers and adopted between 1949 and 1976 in the UK, at a time when they were often rejected by their families and shunned by society.

Adoptions were generally handled through agencies run by the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church and the Salvation Army.

The Welsh Government formally apologised in April 2023, a month after the Scottish Government did so.

Then-first minister Nicola Sturgeon fought back tears in one of her last acts in the position as she offered a “sincere, heartfelt and unreserved” apology.

A report by the UK Government’s Joint Committee on Human Rights in 2022 recommended ministers apologise to unmarried women who were “railroaded” into unwanted adoptions.

The JCHR later said the lack of an apology was “disappointing”.

Commons leader Sir Alan Campbell, who was speaking in the Commons in his first session since being appointed to the role last week, said: “These are remarkably distressing and life-changing in the effect that they had.

“These abhorrent practises should never have taken place, and our deepest sympathies are with those affected.

“We take these matters extremely seriously. We continue to engage with those impacted to provide support.

“We’re also improving access to adoption records, including asking adoption agencies to preserve records for at least 100 years, and I will ensure that the Education Secretary hears about (his) concerns.”