A tearful MP has revealed how her mother was forced to put her baby brother up for adoption in a powerful personal example of a scandal that affected tens of thousands of women.
Reform UK’s Sarah Pochin broke down in the Commons yesterday as she spoke publicly for the first time about the secret that her mother carried ‘to her grave’.
It came as Sir Keir Starmer issued a formal apology on behalf of the State for historic forced adoption of babies from unmarried mothers, which he branded a ‘stain on our history’.
The Prime Minister spoke of Ms Pochin’s ‘huge courage’ in sharing her story as she tearfully recalled her own family history of forced adoption and the difficulty she faced in finding her brother.
The MP for Runcorn and Helsby said her mother was pressured into giving up her baby for adoption ‘by the church’, a secret that she only discovered upon her mother’s death.
Ms Pochin told MPs: ‘My own mother was pressurised into giving up a baby for adoption, and this was handled by the church. I only found out after her death, she carried her secret to her grave.
‘When I found out, I tried to find my sibling, but drew a blank. I had to pay privately to find him, and we’ve now been united.
‘Can the Prime Minister assure those affected that the new systems and resources will be given the funding they need to reunite families?’
Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin appeared tearful in the Commons yesterday as she spoke publicly of her personal story amidst the forced adoption scandal
Keir Starmer issued a formal apology to survivors of the forced adoption scandal on Thursday, as he told them: ‘The shame is not yours, the shame was never yours, the shame is ours’
It is estimated that 185,000 babies of unmarried mothers were forcibly adopted in England and Wales between 1949 and 1976, though Sir Keir said he fears it ‘may be more than that’.
A tearful Ms Pochin was comforted by another MP after she spoke as the Prime Minister thanked her for her ‘powerful’ personal story of how forced adoption affects families to this day.
Sir Keir said: ‘She’s shown huge courage in saying that in the chamber today, and the way she described her mother taking the secret to her grave is very powerful and an example of the way in which some people simply feel they can’t talk about this and didn’t talk about this, and where they’ve passed will never now be able to talk about this, so she shows great courage in speaking on her mother’s behalf as well.
‘I’m glad that there has been that reuniting, but it can’t be the painful journey that she’s just described. We have to do better than that, and we will.’
Women whose babies had been taken from them also wiped away tears as they watched in Parliament as the Prime Minister apologised on behalf of the Government.
While Cardiff and Holyrood issued formal apologies for forced adoption in 2023, it was not until yesterday that the UK Government officially said sorry.
At a meeting with campaigners in Downing Street ahead of the statement in Parliament, Sir Keir told the women they had suffered a ‘double injustice’ in having had to wait so long for a State apology.
The PM said that mothers ‘were coerced, bullied, or misled into feeling that they had no choice but to have their children taken away from them’, adding that this ‘should never have happened’.
Sir Keir said the State was ‘deeply and profoundly sorry to the mothers who were told they were unfit, who were prevented from caring for the children they desperately wanted to help and to keep, and who have carried this loss for decades’.
Sir Keir announced the Government is funding a national online resource to help people locate adoption records relevant to them.
He said: ‘We’ll do everything we can to make sure it’s as complete as possible as quickly as possible.’
