Historical Forced Adoption

Lord Wallace of Saltaire Excerpts

Tuesday 7th July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Basildon (Lab)]

First, I am sure the noble Baroness just misspoke: the NHS was 78 on Sunday, not 68.

She references the parents who adopted children. I have to say that the focus today has to be on the adoptees and the mothers. It is not that some adoptive parents did not provide a loving home but that there was an idea that the mother could not be the best person. Judgments were made. I know that in my own family, going back a generation or so, there were cousins who were really uncles but they were brought up by the grandmother rather than the mother. That happened quite frequently and was not unusual. Many of us looking back at our family trees and trying to work out dates of birth find that they do not quite work out.

It is a bit early to say who should deliver particular services. That is where the clinicians come in, working with the NHS. I am not saying that everything has to be delivered through the NHS, because there may be other ways of doing so. What is important is that it is referenced on a patient’s record, because that is how a clinician will know how to find the best way to support the person affected.

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD)]

My Lords, I declare a painful personal interest. My mother was working as a volunteer for the Church of England Moral Welfare in the 1950s and I did not fully understand what it was about. I now look back at that inhibited and illiberal period in our society, and this is part of what was so inhibited. The Church of England in those days preached that sex was sinful, and there was a whole range of other issues.

Since then, we have become a far more liberal society, and the position of women in our society in particular has changed radically. I look at my daughter’s opportunities compared with those of my sisters and I am delighted. Does the Minister think that we now need to think about the broader social context of the sort of society we live in, now that our liberal society is under attack from misogynistic movements both in the United States and in Europe, certainly very strongly on social media, and that we all in different parties need to defend the principles of private life, toleration and the rights of women as well as of men from the attacks that are coming from reactionary forces on both sides of the Atlantic?

[Baroness Smith of Basildon (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord, but I must correct him: I do not think the Church ever preached that sex was sinful. It was only sinful if you did not have a wedding ring; I think it was quite happy about it once the wedding ceremony had taken place. However, the noble Lord is right that this was a societal and cultural issue. As I said, I think parents colluded in that because of the shame it brought on the family, and it is a shocking thing to say that that might have happened in your own family.

We are in different times. With the advances that have been made in society in our approach, with the great reforms in the 1960s to marriage, to divorce, to contraception and on a whole range of issues, we now think differently. However, the noble Lord is right that there is a movement among those who have a very misogynistic attitude towards women—just look at the Question we had today about the gang raping of women within relationships having been drugged by partners—and we have to be clear, to speak out and to act, taking action that is as strong as possible wherever it occurs. But that starts with language. In relation to some of the videos online where women are disrespected and it is seen as some kind of macho thing to disrespect women, I think all of us will want to speak out about that and speak out with one voice.