Sky News ground to a halt minutes into their breakfast show to issue a major breaking news update from No. 10. On Thursday (July 2), Sophy Ridge and Wilfred Frost returned to the helm for their early morning show, Mornings with Ridge and Frost, where they discussed the biggest stories hitting the headlines. It didn’t take long for things to turn political as they interrupted the show with a breaking news announcement from Downing Street.

They revealed that Sir Keir Starmer will issue a formal apology on behalf of the state to survivors of forced adoptions. Mr Frost began: “We’ve just learnt that the Prime Minister will make a formal apology on behalf of the state to all of those who have been affected by historic forced adoptions in England.”

Between 1949 and 1976, an estimated 185,000 babies were taken from single mothers and placed for adoption in England and Wales because they were unmarried or deemed too young to care for a child. After decades of campaigning, the Government have acknowledged the scandal and will apologise to the victims later today.

Campaigner and former Labour MP Ann Keen said she was looking forward to “being released from my shame” when Sir Keir Starmer expresses regret on behalf of the British state. Presenter Wilfred Frost then welcomed political correspondent Alexandra Rogers onto the show to discuss the revelation in detail.

She went on: “This comes off the back of an education committee inquiry into this, which heard from some of the mothers and how they described the feelings of shame and upset, and how they carry this with them through their lives. So, this is the state acknowledging that what happened to the mothers and these children was wrong.

“Some of these mothers were teenagers, and some kids were left orphaned, so I think this is Keir Starmer trying to push through some positive change in the last days of his premiership.” In March, a parliamentary inquiry recommended the Government urgently apologise for the state’s role in the practice.

The inquiry report, from the Education Committee, found that the Government decisions had “shaped the environment in which unmarried mothers were often shamed and coerced into having their children put up for adoption.” It called for improved access to adoption records, as well as more support for people seeking to contact or reunite with their families.

Campaigners, including Keen, are meeting the Labour leader in Downing Street ahead of his statement in Parliament. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme prior to the meeting, Keen said she “didn’t have a say” in her son’s adoption after she was sent to a Swansea mother and baby home in 1966 when she was just 17.

She told listeners: “We all need this apology because we have always been accused of giving up our babies, and we didn’t want to give them up.” The former health minister said mothers and adoptees had been “waiting a long time” for an apology, but that the Government had “done the best they could, because it’s so complex.”