MPs were in demob-happy mood yesterday. The Commons was rattling through its final business before packing up and heading home for the Christmas holidays.

But just before midday, the seasonal festivities were put on hold as the House listened in rapt silence to an MP baring her heart and her pain.

The Mother of Parliaments is well used to Honorary Members recalling the troubles of constituents and other third parties.

But yesterday, Stockton South MP Dari Taylor was talking about what she and her husband David had gone through at the hands of the country's adoption services.

"It broke my heart and it broke my husband's heart," said Mrs Taylor, clearly fighting back tears.

The MP was speaking after Health Secretary Alan Milburn had unveiled new plans to shake up the adoption procedures across England and Wales.

Mr Milburn, MP for Darlington, unveiled a White Paper to speed up the vetting process and boost the number of children matched with new parents from 2,700 this year to 3,780 by 2005.

The plans, billed as the biggest overhaul of adoption services for 25 years, aim to tackle a situation where, at present, the adoption process can take up to three years. There is currently a backlog of 2,000 youngsters waiting for a permanent home.

Unveiling the White Paper, Mr Milburn condemned the current system for passing children awaiting adoption "from pillar to post".

"These children need the safety, stability and loving care of a permanent new family. And they need that stability as quickly as possible. That is not the case at present."

Mrs Taylor, MP for Stockton South since 1997, has a 20-year-old daughter, Philippa. And, as she freely explained to the Commons yesterday, Philippa was adopted because Dari was unable to have her own children.

The 56-year-old MP last night told The Northern Echo how more than 20 years ago, she and David had struggled to conceive a child.

"We had gone through probably five or six years of the most hideous infertility treatment only to be told again and again that we were not going to be parents," recalled Mrs Taylor, who was then living near Nottingham.

She explained how she came from a large family and had been so keen to have children of her own. But every time she was told she was not going to be a mum, "a bit of me died". "It got very close to ruining our marriage,'' she recalled, adding how she saw herself as "the problem" because she was infertile.

Like many a desperate couple before and after them, the Taylors turned to the local council to see if they could adopt a child.

"They took a year to tell us we were now on the list for consideration," she said. Then another year passed before Mrs Taylor received the crushing news that she and David were no longer prospective adopters because she was "now too old".

In the Commons, the MP didn't mince her words on what that meant to the couple. The "hideousness" of the adoption procedures they came up against could not be exaggerated, she said.

Salvation for the couple came through a local Christian children's society. As she explained, just under 20 years ago Mrs Taylor took delivery of a "five-week-old bundle".

And she recalled how a few days before the happy event, she raced off to John Lewis on a Friday to get all the vital equipment for her new charge.

Slim and clearly not pregnant, she told the sceptical shop assistant how she was having a baby the following Monday.

But when Dari explained she was adopting, the assistant showed her delight that Mrs Taylor was not having clinical delusions.

Back in the Commons, the MP admitted it was her and her husband's faith which was the key to the happy ending to their particular story - not the work of the local council adoption services. "The fact that we were Christians and attended church gave us the opportunity of adopting Philippa. That should never, ever be the case," she said.

So from that experience, the MP yesterday welcomed Mr Milburn's proposals for a new national standard on adoption procedures and independent appraisals. But the praise was not qualified as she also asked whether any consideration had been given to a national adoption agency.

Mr Milburn told her that a national bureau had been ruled out because of the importance of keeping a strong link between local adoption and local child protection services.

Mrs Taylor said for her and David all was well. Philippa was "magic" and next year would be off to college.

But Mrs Taylor issued a final warning about the mountain adoption services had to climb.

She revealed that she and her husband had had no contact with social services, or any other relevant authority, about their daughter in the past 19 years.

The feeling is that, if the adoption service is to work better, so must the follow-up and support services