Starmer to formally apologise to victims of forced adoptions
Survivors of historical forced adoption are to get the state apology they have spent decades campaigning for when Sir Keir Starmer says sorry in Parliament.
The Prime Minister is expected to stand in the Commons at around 11:30 am and acknowledge the harm caused when an estimated 185,000 babies of unmarried mothers were adopted in England and Wales between 1949 and 1976.
The Joint Committee on Human Rights called for a state apology in 2022, saying “the Government bears ultimate responsibility for the pain and suffering caused by public institutions and state employees that railroaded mothers into unwanted adoptions”.
Mothers forced to give up their babies have previously described the harrowing experiences of having them taken away and the lingering feelings of shame, while adults who were removed as children from their mothers have spoken of a “harmful narrative” which long persisted that adoption had saved them.
The Westminster apology comes three years after administrations in Cardiff and Holyrood said sorry to people impacted across Wales and Scotland.
Follow The i Paper’s live blog for the latest updates.
The Government’s plan to give teachers a 6.5% pay rise over the next two years has been slammed as a “kick in the teeth for schools” by the Conservatives, with schools expected to fund part of the rise themselves.
Confirming the plans on Thursday morning, the Department for Education said teachers would receive an increase of 3.5% from September 2026 and an additional 3% from September 2027.
But schools will need to find the first 1% of each annual rise from their own budgets.
“This is another kick in the teeth for schools, who have been let down time and again by Bridget Phillipson’s broken promises,” said shadow education secretary Laura Trott.
“Labour’s tax on education was supposed to pay for 6,500 more teachers, yet there are 1,900 fewer. Ministers promised schools would be fully compensated for Rachel Reeves’ Jobs Tax, but they have broken that promise too.
“Instead, schools are being left to find nearly half a billion to cover unfunded pay awards. That money has to come from somewhere, and it will mean more teachers losing their jobs.”
Along with the pay increase, which the government says brings total teacher pay up 17% since the general election, academy trusts will also need government approval before advertising roles over £174,000.
Andy Burnham will be looking at the defence investment plan (Dip) “very carefully”, an ally of the Makerfield MP has told Sky News.
Unveiled by Keir Starmer on Tuesday, the Dip includes £4.7bn of unfunded spending.
Where that money comes from will be decided in the autumn Budget, with Burnham widely expected to be in Number 10 by then.
Labour MP David Baines, a Burnham ally, told Sky News: “I’m sure Andy is going to be looking at it very carefully, and it’s going to have to be a priority for him when he’s hopefully in the job.”
Baines also played down the idea that Burnham should have been involved in conversations around the Dip, adding: “I don’t think he’s been stitched up.”
A senior Tory has said headteachers should decide how taxing school on Monday should be – as England prepare for a 1am World Cup clash with Mexico the night before.
Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith told Sky News he did not think Monday should be a bank holiday, but said: “I think on a common sense basis, Monday may not be the world’s most productive day.
“Teachers, head teachers, can decide how heavy or light the school curriculum is.”
The Conservatives have unveiled plans aimed at “saving the summer job”, with the shadow business secretary saying the party is “on the side of young people”.
Speaking to Sky News, Andrew Griffith said Labour had “clobbered” seasonal and hospitality industries with a National Insurance rise and business rates reforms, making it harder for young people to find work.
Under the plans, the Conservatives would change existing rules to allow school-age workers to work for more than two hours on Sundays, and after 7pm on Saturdays. They would also eliminate Child Employment Permits, currently needed to employ school-age workers.
Youth unemployment has risen by 109,000 in the space of a year, with around one in every six people aged 16 to 24 out of work.
Recalling “hot, sweaty” work in Tesco’s bakery on Saturdays, Griffith said: “We’ve got a million young people who are out of work, out of education and training.
“Sixty per cent of them have never had any experience of paid work in their lives.
“And I think we’re just letting down a generation.”
Sir Keir Starmer is set to make a formal apology to survivors of forced adoption in the House of Commons today.
Between 1949 and 1976, an estimated 185,000 babies were taken from unmarried mothers and placed into adoption.
Campaigners have previously called for a state apology to contain an acknowledgement of wrongdoing, acceptance of responsibility, expression of remorse or regret and an assurance that the harm will not be repeated.
Survivors in England and Wales have waited for four years since the Joint Committee on Human Rights said in 2022 that “the Government bears ultimate responsibility” and called for a state apology.
In 2023, the Conservative government said while it was sorry “on behalf of society” for the way the women had been treated, it did not think a formal apology appropriate “since the state did not actively support these practices”.
In a committee hearing earlier this year MPs were told by campaigners that, alongside an apology, more support was needed for mothers and adoptees, including fast-tracking them for trauma-informed counselling as well as better access to their records.
Two weeks ago, the Church of England apologised for its role in forced adoptions, telling survivors the “shame is ours”.
The Welsh and Scottish governments said sorry three years ago to people impacted, while in Northern Ireland an apology is expected after a public inquiry has been carried out.
The law needs to be changed to allow the Government to remove the ringleader of a Rochdale grooming gang from the country, the shadow home secretary has said.
Chris Philp told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that Shabir Ahmed, who will be released on Thursday after serving 14 years in prison for multiple sexual offences, should “certainly be deported”.
“He’s a vile rapist who didn’t just organise the rape of young girls as young as 12 years old. He actually ran a gang, doing it on a huge scale,” he said.
“He should be kicked out of the country, deported back to Pakistan, and the law needs to be changed.”
Philp said he will be laying an amendment to change the Immigration Act 1971, which means that people arriving in the UK from Commonwealth countries prior to 1973 cannot be deported, in the coming months.
He said the Labour MPs for Rochdale and Oldham, Paul Waugh and Jim McMahon, have agreed that the law needs to change.
“I hope the government will support my amendment,” Philp said.
Team Burnham are up in arms over the defence funding landmine Sir Keir Starmer has laid for them.
In one of his last acts as Prime Minister, Starmer has finally unveiled the Defence Investment Plan but the fine print blindsided his successor, who will have to find £5bn to fully fund it.
It was Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s attempt to cut a similar sum from welfare that triggered the rebellion which blew up Starmer’s premiership. So defusing this parting gift looks a tricky task for Andy Burnham and his chancellor.
But, in truth, £5bn is peanuts compared to the £1trn-plus that the Government spends, and anyone fazed by it isn’t fit to be PM.
When I was in No 10 for last year’s Spring Statement, initial estimates suggested we would need to raise north of £20bn to achieve it. In the end, it was more like £8bn. So the good news for Burnham is that improved forecasts could solve the defence plan shortfall at a stroke.
The bad news is that they could also go the other way – and the real problem is that even if the £5bn bill vanishes, much larger ones are in the post.
Then there are Burnham’s own priorities. In a few short weeks, and without the pressure of a leadership rival, the presumptive prime minister has signalled support for more spending on transport, housing, social care and tackling the cost of living. But where will he reduce spending to fund it?
If Labour are to win the next election, Burnham needs to pick a small number of issues he will deliver on and stick to them through thick and thin.
The Government is “looking at every route” to remove the ringleader of a Rochdale grooming gang from the country, a minister has said.
Asked about calls to deport Shabir Ahmed, who will be released on Thursday after serving 14 years in prison for multiple sexual offences, Baroness Jacqui Smith told LBC that Andy Burnham was “right” to say he should be removed.
She said: “There are two problems here. Number one, there are a very small number of people who came to this country over 50 years ago from Commonwealth countries where the law doesn’t allow them to be deported.
“And secondly, of course, in order to deport somebody, the country to which you are going to deport them needs to be willing to take them.”
Burnham said on Tuesday that he would ask the home and foreign secretaries to “review all possible options” around removing Ahmed from the UK.
Smith added: “We’ve removed this man’s British citizenship, he’s a Pakistan citizen, but there is also work that needs to happen in order to persuade Pakistan to take him back.”
She said: “We are looking within Government at everything that we could possibly do in order to review the law in order to persuade Pakistan to take him.”
“We’re doing everything we can, looking at every route to get this guy out of the country,” she added.
Growing numbers of single-sex private schools are becoming co-ed in an attempt to attract more students following the VAT levy on fees that has driven down pupil numbers.
Girls’ independent schools have had the biggest fall in enrolment in the past year, according to a survey by the Independent Schools Council (ISC).
One headmaster told The i Paper that girls with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) could be worst affected by the decline of single-sex schools, as they often benefit from being in classrooms tailored to their specific needs.
There are at least 28 fewer single-sex schools now than there were in 2024, according to The i Paper‘s analysis of ISC data.
The trade body, which surveys more than 1,400 private schools each year, said 228 of its members are single-sex schools, down from 256 in 2024, before the current Government was elected with a pledge to charge VAT on school fees.
During the same period, the number of co-ed schools rose from 1,155 to 1,227. Both the number of private schools and ISC members has risen in the past year.
The number of girls at single-sex private schools has fallen by 4 per cent in the past year, compared with a 3.8 per cent drop in pupils at co-ed schools, according to the group’s findings.
A minister has acknowledged there will be further “difficult choices” on funding the defence investment plan (Dip).
Asked about £4.7bn of unfunded spending in the Dip, skills minister Baroness Jacqui Smith told Times Radio: “We have made some quite difficult choices to redistribute, for example, capital spending in order to put in place the funding necessary to deliver the defence investment plan, in the way in which we have done.
“And there will continue to be difficult choices to be made about how we prioritise defence.”
The Prime Minister unveiled the defence investment plan (Dip) on Tuesday, with a promise to increase defence spending by £15bn, and modernise the armed forces so they are prepared for drone attacks and the threat of Russia.
The Government is yet to spell out how almost a third of the plan will be funded, with a decision on where that £4.7bn will come from to be made at the Budget in the autumn.
That will prove a headache to Sir Keir Starmer’s successor in No 10, likely to be Andy Burnham, who was only briefed about the funding black hole on Tuesday.
Angela Rayner has given her backing to incoming prime minister Andy Burnham’s plans to move power out of Westminster and into town halls around the country.
The Labour MP and former deputy prime minister said she wanted to see “a much deeper cultural change” in how Britain is governed, and also hit out at her party in Government for not being bold enough in its agenda.
Burnham, who looks set to enter Downing Street within weeks, on Monday pledged to “rewire” the British state with greater decision-making handed to local leaders.
His flagship proposal was the creation of an outpost of 10 Downing Street based in Manchester, which would serve as the “nerve centre” through which to deliver priorities including reindustrialisation and redistributing power across the UK.
Rayner echoed his language about devolving power in a speech in central London on Wednesday night, where she described the UK as “one of the most over-centralised countries in the developed world”.
The senior Labour figure is reportedly keen on a return to the front line of Government, after having been cleared by HMRC earlier this year following a row over her tax affairs.
She claimed her work on English devolution had helped to set the direction for moving powers out of Westminster, but insisted ministers needed to go further by “making devolution the default”.
Survivors of historical forced adoption are to get the state apology they have spent decades campaigning for when Sir Keir Starmer says sorry in Parliament.
The Prime Minister is expected to stand in the Commons and acknowledge the harm caused when an estimated 185,000 babies of unmarried mothers were adopted in England and Wales between 1949 and 1976.
Starmer’s formal apology will come after he meets with campaigners in Downing Street on Thursday morning.
The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) called for a state apology in 2022, saying “the Government bears ultimate responsibility for the pain and suffering caused by public institutions and state employees that railroaded mothers into unwanted adoptions”.
Mothers forced to give up their babies have previously described the harrowing experiences of having them taken away and the lingering feelings of shame, while adults who were removed as children from their mothers have spoken of a “harmful narrative” which long persisted that adoption had saved them.
It was confirmed last month by Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson that a long-campaigned for apology was coming in relation to what she called a “shameful period in our history”.
The Westminster apology comes three years after administrations in Cardiff and Holyrood said sorry to people impacted across Wales and Scotland.
Welcome back to The i Paper’s politics blog on Thursday, 2 July.
Sir Keir Starmer’s plan to boost defence spending by £15bn is facing fresh scrutiny, after Downing Street was unable to say where exactly the cuts required to pay for it will come from.
The Prime Minister unveiled the defence investment plan (Dip) on Tuesday, with a promise to increase defence spending by £15bn, and modernise the armed forces so they are prepared for drone attacks and the threat of Russia.
The Government is yet to spell out how almost a third of the plan will be funded, with a decision on where that £4.7bn will come from to be made at the Budget in the autumn.
That will prove a headache to Sir Keir Starmer’s successor in No 10, likely to be Andy Burnham, who was only briefed about the funding black hole on Tuesday.
But the Government has also provided scant detail about where the remaining £10.3bn cuts to Whitehall spending which will fund the plan will come from.
Meanwhile, survivors of historical forced adoption are to get the state apology they have spent decades campaigning for later today.
The Prime Minister is expected to stand in the Commons and acknowledge the harm caused when an estimated 185,000 babies of unmarried mothers were adopted in England and Wales between 1949 and 1976.
Starmer’s apology will come after he meets with campaigners in Downing Street on Thursday morning.
The National Education Union (NEU) has said it is “considering all options” after the Government announced today that schools will need to partially fund teacher pay rises.
It comes after the Department for Education accepted a recommendation that teachers be awarded a 3.5 per cent pay rise from September, followed by another of 3 per cent in 2027.
Now, the department has confirmed schools will need to fud the first 1 per cent of each of these salary bumps.
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU, said in a statement: “A partially funded settlement still means cuts to education, and the NEU will never accept that.
“Schools are being asked to find £460m from budgets already at breaking point.
“This is the equivalent of 8,300 school staff: 3,900 teachers and 4,400 support staff. Ministers cannot claim to want more teachers while overseeing such a drastic reduction in numbers next year.”
The case against the suspended Labour MP Dan Norris, who is facing multiple allegations of serious sexual offences, has reportedly been sent to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for a charging decision.
Norris, the MP for North East Somerset and Hanham, faces allegations of rape against three women and sexual assault against another woman. He also faces allegations of voyeurism and upskirting against multiple women.
The offences, which allegedly occurred between the 2000s and the 2020s, are being investigated by Avon and Somerset Police’s rape and serious sexual assault investigation team.
The former West of England mayor was suspended by the Labour Party after his arrest in April 2025. He has not attended Parliament since he was released on police bail.
Norris has previously denied the allegations against them. “I vigorously and entirely deny the serious allegations made against me,” he said. “They are untrue.”
“I am challenging them through my legal representatives,” Norris added.
The i Paper has approached the now independent MP for a comment.
A spokesperson for Avon and Somerset Police told The i Paper: “We’ve been carrying out an investigation into allegations of sexual offences which led to the arrest of a man in his sixties.
“The investigation, which is being led by officers with Operation Bluestone, our dedicated rape and serious sexual assault investigation team, began in December 2024.
“The allegations being investigated relate to rape against three women, sexual assault against a fourth woman, as well as voyeurism and upskirting against a number of women. All offences are alleged to have occurred between the 2000s and 2020s.
“As a result of our enquiries, a file has been submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service to consider a charging decision.
“We’ve updated the victims about this significant development, and we’ll continue to make sure they have access to any help or support they need.
“We’d respectfully ask people not to speculate on the circumstances so the investigation can continue unhindered.”
A Labour Party spokesperson told Sky News: “Dan Norris was immediately suspended by the Labour Party upon being informed of his initial arrest.
“The allegations against him are appalling and any person found guilty of such abhorrent crimes must face the full force of the law.
“We cannot comment further while legal proceedings are ongoing.”
Russia is repeatedly provoking Western countries. What looks like a series of isolated nuisances is, in fact, part of a broader strategy. Every sabotage attack, undersea cable operation, airspace incursion and GPS jamming incident helps Moscow answer one question: if Russia attacked Nato later this decade, how would the alliance actually respond?
That matters because Sir Keir Starmer has warned that Britain should be ready for a Russian attack on Nato by 2030. Russia is running the experiment now.
Russia’s “grey-zone” attacks are varied, widespread and growing. Putin tested Nato airspace 18 times in 2025, three times more than in 2024. In April, the UK and Norway foiled a covert attempt by Russian submarines to survey and potentially target critical undersea cables and pipelines in the North Atlantic and North Sea.
In the same month, a Russian fighter jet passed within six metres of an RAF aircraft over the Black Sea. A day later, Russia was suspected of jamming the GPS of former UK defence secretary John Healey’s plane. We now know that Russia was responsible for DHL parcel firebombs in the UK, Poland and Germany. These are not isolated incidents, but iterative stress tests designed to reduce Moscow’s uncertainty about Nato’s response.
Russia’s scorecard for that test comes in two parts. First, capability: does Nato have the military capability to detect, mobilise and respond quickly and decisively? Second, credibility: will it choose to respond, and keep responding?
Capability is the most visible element of deterrence. In military terms, do we have the drones, manpower, equipment and tactics to respond; can we spot and deter Russian submarines lurking over critical cables? In policy terms, how quickly are Nato countries moving towards their 3.5 per cent defence spending commitment?
Credibility is less frequently discussed. Moscow is not just observing military hardware. It is observing decision-making. How quickly are aircrafts scrambled? How quickly can the alliance establish attribution? Do allies agree on a response? And does public sentiment support it?
Officials have drawn up contingency plans to cut further green levies from energy bills if prices remain high this winter, The i Paper has been told.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s Treasury has been working on plans for a support package for households after energy prices soared following Donald Trump’s war with Iran.
Makerfield MP Andy Burnham, who is currently expected to become the next prime minister, is expected to stick to the current Government’s commitment to provide help if energy prices stay high this winter.
In his first major speech since returning as an MP, Burnham said: “I heard on doorsteps in Makerfield how people need a bit extra now to help with rising costs… I will do my very best to deliver it and, while not taking risks with the public finances, will seek to give Britain some breathing space as soon as I can.”
A Treasury source told The i Paper work on a package was ongoing, pointing to the £150 cut to the average household energy bill after Reeves overhauled green levies in her last budget. The source added that there was “more you can do in the same space”.
With Burnham on course to enter Downing Street as soon as 20 July, energy bills may become one of the first big policy tests of his prospective premiership.
Several options are now circulating among his transition team, who are believed to be weighing up how to deliver on that pledge.
Ofgem’s energy price cap rose by 13.5 per cent today, from £1,641 to £1,862, adding £221 a year to a typical household’s bill. This has been driven by higher wholesale gas prices linked to the conflict between the US, Israel and Iran.
The price cap is set independently by the energy regulator, but the Government does have other ways of influencing bills.
One of these is green levies, which are added to bills on top of the wholesale price of energy to pay for things like renewable schemes and support for low-income households. As levies sit on top of the wholesale price, they can be moved off bills and funded through general taxation instead.
Reeves did this last November, saving households £150 by shifting three-quarters of the “Renewables Obligation” onto taxation, scrapping the Energy Company Obligation and adjusting VAT.
But levies only affect part of the bill and cannot completely offset rises driven by wholesale prices.
Energy consultancy Cornwall Insight forecasts that bills will drop only slightly in October to £1,849, offering little relief to families.
Its principal consultant, Craig Lowrey, said “October bills always hit harder than July’s because people are turning their heating on again”, meaning any relief would need to land before winter to be felt.
The Treasury has been examining whether further cuts to green levies on energy bills could be made to reduce the costs to households – but exactly how this would work remains unclear.
However, The i Paper understands that Burnham’s first budget could remove most remaining green levies from household and business energy bills, funding the change through general taxation instead.
The plan under consideration by Burnham’s transition team would be paid for by reforming capital gains tax (CGT) – the tax paid on profit when someone sells an asset such as shares or a second home – currently capped at 24 per cent, to align with the 40 per cent higher income tax rate.
The Government has taken a “significant step on our journey to reach towards a better future”, Rachel Reeves has said, following the publication of the long-awaited Defence Investment Plan yesterday.
Writing in The Telegraph, the Chancellor said a “strengthened economy, supporting our allies and sanctioning adversaries is the right plan for a secure Britain and a safer world”.
She added that she “wrote and spoke about the importance of security and resilience for growth, and the importance of a strong economy for our national security”, during her time as shadow chancellor.
“It’s an approach that I called Securonomics,” Reeves added. “That approach has become more urgent – and more necessary – since I became Chancellor.
“We have seen countries that are arming and tensions that are rising, a more dangerous and volatile world than at any time for decades.
“Defence and readiness for now are not remote contingencies or a far-away possibility. We have had to make the right choices, in the national interest, to protect ourselves and our allies.”
Reeves went on to reflect on her visit to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv last weekend, saying it offered a “reminder of why the work we are doing to lead the world in supporting their fight is crucial for the fight for the freedom of the Ukrainian people, and the freedom, values and way of life we all hold dear in the West”.
She continued: “The Defence Investment Plan will equip us for the wars of today and the future, while creating tens of thousands of jobs that will grow our economy.
“Today, I will announce how we will go further by looking beyond the remit of the Ministry of Defence to secure our defences. By directly investing in businesses at the forefront of innovating and building the equipment we need, meaning more money for defence start-ups to create jobs, boost growth and keep our country more secure. That is Securonomics in action.”
The Chancellor claimed the investments are only possible due to the changes to the fiscal rules she made when Labour was elected in 2024.
“It means that we can invest in areas that provide returns for our country, our national and economic security,” she said.
“This week we have made a significant step on our journey to reach towards a better future,” Reeves added. “A stronger, fairer country that the British people deserve.”
Andy Burnham has said he will speak to the home and foreign secretaries to review “all possible options” to get the ringleader of a grooming gang in Rochdale deported.
Shabir Ahmed, 73, was stripped of his British citizenship after his conviction in 2012 for multiple counts of rape and sexual offences against girls.
Documents shared online, which were reportedly sent from the Probation Service to one of his victims, suggest that Ahmed will be released tomorrow.
Like everyone, I want this vile criminal out of the country. Victims must come first.
I will ask the Home and Foreign Secretaries to review all possible options – and they should consider nothing is off the table.https://t.co/u42MdjrX65
Ahmed was also a Pakistani national when he was stripped of his British citizenship, but the papers suggest the 73-year-old, who is known to his victims as “Daddy”, cannot be deported back to Pakistan due to provisions under the Immigration Act 1971.
Posting on X, Burnham, who could replace Sir Keir Starmer as prime minister as early as 20 July, wrote: “Like everyone, I want this vile criminal out of the country.
“Victims must come first. I will ask the Home and Foreign Secretaries to review all possible options – and they should consider nothing is off the table.”