Government reintroduces Bill to build Holocaust memorial in heart of Westminster

The Government has recommitted to building a Holocaust memorial in the heart of Westminster, reintroducing legislation to allow the plans to go ahead.

The Holocaust Memorial Bill, reintroduced to Parliament on Thursday, will mean “future generations continue to learn lessons from the past and help to build a more unified, tolerant future”, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said.

She added: “The evil and brutality of the Holocaust is a stark reminder of what can happen when hatred and intolerance go unchallenged. We must make sure those who died are never forgotten.”

A vow to build the memorial was first made in January 2015 but the plan ran into difficulties over a 1900 law protecting Victoria Tower Gardens, the location just south of Parliament chosen for the structure.

Planning permission was granted in July 2021 after a public inquiry and the recommendations of planning inspector David Morgan.

But it was challenged in the High Court by the London Historic Parks and Gardens Trust, which argued against building the centre on the small triangular Grade II-listed park to the south of Parliament.

The London County Council (Improvements) Act 1900 required the land to be used as a public park.

The Holocaust Memorial Bill will both authorise expenditure on the construction, maintenance and operation of the memorial and learning centre, and also disapply sections of the 1900 Act, removing the legal obstacle that has prevented the project from going ahead.

The previous Conservative government had also pledged to do this in the King’s Speech in November but called the election before the Bill could be approved.

Chief Rabbi Sir Ephram Mirvis welcomed the new Government’s commitment to the project, saying it sent “a timely message, not only about our national undertaking to remembering this dark period of our history but, more importantly, about the kind of future we want to create together”.

He said: “With the passage of time and the tidal wave of polarisation, scapegoating and hatred that seems to be sweeping the world, the urgent moral duty to preserve the lessons of the Holocaust could not be greater.”

Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: “With the Holocaust fading further into history and survivors becoming fewer and frailer, the need for progress on building the memorial and learning centre next to Parliament has never been more urgent.

“With antisemitism surging in the UK and around the world, we must be more determined than ever to show exactly where this pernicious hate can and did lead.”

The reintroduced Bill will go through the Commons without debate, having been discussed in the last Parliament, and will then resume its normal passage in the Lords.

While the proposals have received cross-party support, they are not universally backed even among Holocaust survivors, some of whom believe the chosen site is too small and object to the design proposed for the memorial.

One parliamentary opponent of the scheme, Sir Peter Bottomley, lost his seat at this month’s election but another, Baroness Ruth Deech, is likely to provide opposition in the House of Lords.