PRIME Minister Sir Keir Starmer issued a belated apology today on behalf of the British state for its role in the forced adoption of babies.

“We are truly sorry,” the PM told mothers and children who were victims of the policy between 1949 and 1976.

An estimated 185,000 babies were taken from their mothers in what Sir Keir described as “a stain on our history.

“The shame is not yours. The shame was never yours. The shame is ours.”

However, no compensation scheme has been set up to redress the wrong. But £4 million will be used to help people access adoption records and reconnect with lost family members.

There was also a government promise of improved mental health support for those affected.

The forced adoptions were usually a consequence of unmarried women giving birth, reflecting a brutal social conservatism embedded in government, religious organisations and parts of the NHS at the time.

Sir Keir told MPs, with some of those affected sitting in the Commons gallery: “Today, finally, I do say on behalf of the state and the nations involved: we see you, we hear you and we are truly sorry.”

The harm of forced adoptions has been “compounded by the actions and failures of the state,” he said.

“The state did not prevent harm from continuing. The state bears responsibility for the systems it funded and legitimised, which enabled these practices to occur. The state did not do enough to protect mothers, children and families from harm,” he said.

“For this systemic failure, I am truly sorry.”

The Adult Adoptee Movement welcomed the apology but said the government would be judged on what happens next.

“This apology is for the adoptees who were taken at their most vulnerable and sent to strangers,” it said in a statement.

“It marks a fundamental correction of the narrative on historic adoption practices. What happened to you was wrong.  The measure of this apology will not be the words spoken today, but the actions taken tomorrow.”

And the Movement for an Adoption Apology said: “Though this apology has come too late for a significant number of people, it is a positive step for the hundreds of thousands of mothers still living with loss, whose suffering has at last been acknowledged, and for the children who were taken — now adult adoptees — whose lifelong trauma has now been recognised.”

The move follows a report into the scandal by the Commons education committee, which called “for a credible apology and meaningful redress for those affected.”

The chair of the committee, Labour MP Helen Hayes, said today: “While an apology should have been made years ago, I am pleased that the day some campaigners feared would never come has finally arrived.

“Survivors have told the committee that an apology must be accompanied by meaningful support to help them to address the many different ongoing challenges they face. Today’s apology is an important milestone, but it is only a first step.

“My committee will continue to hold the government to account on the next phase of support for survivors, to ensure that the many mothers, children and family members affected by this dark chapter in our history are not forgotten once more.”

MPs shared their own experiences in the Commons.

Labour MP for Edinburgh North Tracy Gilbert said: “As an adopted person born in 1972 I welcome today’s statement.

“I have no idea if my birth mother felt forced to have me adopted. I do know that prior to the birth she was in a Church of Scotland mother and baby home.

“My adopted parents have since died, but I am sure they would not want to have adopted any child who had been forcibly removed from their mother.”

And Reform MP Sarah Pochin said that she had only learned after the death of her mother that she had a brother who had been given up for adoption at birth, with whom she has since been reunited.

Devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales have already issued their own apologies for the practice.