Reform MP Breaks Down In The Commons While Sharing Heartbreaking Personal Story Of Forced Adoption

A Reform UK MP broke down in tears in the Commons on Thursday while sharing her personal story of forced adoption.

Sarah Pochin revealed her own mother was pressured into giving up a child.

The Runcorn and Helsby MP said she only discovered she had a sibling after her mother’s death.

It came as the prime minister offered an official apology for the role the state played in forcing mothers to give up babies born out of wedlock between 1949 and 1976.

Pochin said: “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.”

Struggling to carry on, she said: “Can the prime minister assure those affected that the new systems and resources will be given the funding they need to reunite families?”

MPs around her extended a sympathetic hand when she sat down.

Keir Starmer replied: “Can I thank her for sharing that personal story? And we can all see how difficult that must have been.

“She’s shown huge courage in saying that in the chamber today. The way she described her mother taking her secret to the grave is very powerful.”

As he looks to cement his legacy just three weeks before leaving office, Starmer told the Commons on Thursday: “We are 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.

“To those who were not given the information they needed to provide informed consent, who faced pressure or coercion, and who experienced practices that were unethical.

“To the sons and daughters, the children who are now adults, who, through pressure and coercion within these systems, were taken from their families, denied their identity, their history, and sometimes their safety. To those who grew up believing that they were unwanted.”

The government has also created a peer-led support group for mothers and adopted adults and make it easier for them to access records.

Pochin was not the only MP who grew emotional during the Commons discussion on Starmer’s apology.

Labour MP Tracy Gilbert welled up as she told her colleagues: “As an adopted person born in 1972, I welcome today’s statement from the prime minister.

“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.”

The PM said he saluted “her courage and resilience”.

He added: “To have to speak out about something which is so intensely difficult, over and over again, is incredibly, incredibly demanding, but the comfort I hope is not only that because of that you have been seen and heard, but that others will have the courage to speak out about what happened to them, and I thank her in that regard as well.”

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