Lord Pickles hits back at ‘misleading information’ on Westminster Holocaust Memorial

Conservative peer Lord Pickles has hit back at criticism of the government’s plan to proceed with steps to ensure a Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre is built at Victoria Tower Gardens, close to Westminster.

In a new article, written for the same publication that published an earlier attack on the location of the £109 million project, written by Baroness Deech, Pickles defended the government’s introduction of a Holocaust Memorial Bill as “a step towards completing the memorial.”

Writing in parliament’s The House magazine he said:”The bill aims to remove an obstacle arising from the High Court’s interpretation of the London County Council (Improvements) Act 1900, which created Victoria Tower Gardens as we see it today.

“The bill will not repeal any part of the 1900 Act: we want to maintain the Gardens as a ‘garden open to the public’ just as the legislation requires. We simply aim to ensure the 1900 Act does not prevent the establishment of a Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre.”

The peer – who is co-chair of theUK Holocaust Memorial Foundation Advisory Board, alongside Ed Balls – stressed that plans also include further investment in making the Gardens “more attractive and accessible for all users.”

He claimed the formation of a new slope would offer better views of the Thames, and their would be new seating installed, along with more planting in the green space.

Pickles also hit back at what he said was “misleading information” about the scale of the memorial project, saying it would “only take around 7.5 per cent of the area”.

In an article for the previous edition of The House, Baroness Deech had claimed that Rishi Sunak’s announcement of a new bill hadbeen met with “the disappointment of many, not least within the Jewish community and Holocaust survivors.”