‘Hugely significant’: those affected by forced adoptions welcome apology but demand more remedy

Diana Defries was 16 when her daughter was ‘literally taken from my arms’. She wants the government apology to be backed up with support for victims. Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian

This summer’s World Cup fever vividly takes Ann Keen back to 1966 and the day England won the tournament – she was 17 years old and it was the day she told her father she was pregnant. “It was the worst thing that could ever have been said to him. I was told I’d put shame on the family and I must be sent away,” the former Labour MP said.

“I was in an unmarried mother’s home where I had to scrub the steps from morning until night. It was all about punishment. Even in the delivery room I was told I couldn’t have anything for the pain, because I was a bad girl. And when NHS staff are telling you that, you start to believe it.”