Tory leadership hopefuls urged to back Westminster Holocaust Memorial project
Communities Secretary Paul Scully confirms he is speaking to both Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak over continued support for the Tory 'manifesto commitment', despite further blow to memorial plan in courts last week
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
The two Conservative leadership candidates have both been urged to back plans for legislation aimed at allowing the controversial Westminster Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre project to go ahead.
Paul Scully, the new Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Secretary has confirmed he will be speaking both Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak about continuing to support the £103 million project, which was dealt a blow in the Court of Appeal last week.
His promise to raise the matter with the candidates came after former Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick called for a “simple three-clause Bill” to be brought forward to over the Memorial proposal.
Bob Blackman, the MP for Harrow East, and vice chair of the backbench1922 Committee, suggested Scully could bring forward the legislation when MPs returned to parliament after the summer recess on September 5th, if both Prime Minister hopefuls gave their approval.
In a debate in the House of Commons last Thursday, Scully said “sadly” the challenge to the proposed memorial being built next to parliament in Victoria Tower Gardens had led to the High Court quashing the consent in April this year.
Responding to a further setback last week, the minister added:” The loss of that consent was a disappointment, especially to those Holocaust survivors who place such high value on sharing their testimony and who want to be confident that their message will continue to be heard.
“It was a further disappointment that the Court of Appeal decided yesterday that an appeal against the High Court decision would not be heard.”
MPs from the Tory, Labour and Democratic Unionist parties all spoke out in the debate and condemned the Court of Appeal’s decision to throw out two applications by the government to appeal against a court ruling from April 2022, saying there was “no real prospect” of their success.
Former Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick called for Scully to “bring forward the simple three-clause Bill required” to allow the case to be made again for the Memorial in Westminster.
Scully responded:” As I have said, any legislation will be the decision for the next Prime Minister. It remains a manifesto commitment to build the Holocaust Memorial so that we remember.”
He added he “will be speaking” to both Tory leadership candidates on the matter.
“Clearly, there is a lot to bring to this issue, and we need to make sure that our candidates understand the feeling of the House,” added Scully.
Newark MP Jenrick, who had been outspoken in his support for the project as a minister, said of those attempting to stop the Memorial being built near parliament;”All they will succeed in doing is ensuring that fewer survivors of the Holocaust live to see the memorial open, and that is a national disgrace. ”
He added that if the three-clause Bill was not brought forward he would “amend the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill to do just that, and I am sure that colleagues across this House will support me in ensuring that this project proceeds.”
But the Conservative MP and Leader of the House Peter Bottomley was among the few MPs to express continued opposition to the building of the memorial next to parliament.
He said:”The Minister knows that Jewish opinion is divided.”
Bone asked:” Will he also look at the page suggesting possible central London locations, which include the whole of Regent’s Park, most of Hyde Park, and the Imperial War Museum?”
But for Labour, John Cryer MP said:”The Holocaust is now slipping from memory into history.
“I am convinced that that at least partly explains the rise in antisemitism and holocaust denial that we have seen across Britain and Europe.
“Is it not even more important now that the holocaust memorial centre should, as a number of hon. Members and the Minister have indicated, be right by the epicentre of democracy?
“I find it absolutely extraordinary that the argument is being advanced that we should not have it in Victoria Tower Gardens because it would become a target.
“On that basis, why do we not close this place down, because this place is a target?”
Alex Norris also reminded MPs that Labour leader Keir Starmer has reiterated his support for the Westminster memorial in an interview with Jewish News last week.
Labour’s Chris Bryant added:”The memorial has to be near Parliament.
“At a time when antisemitism was commonplace, in the 1930s in British society, Victor Cazalet MP was the first person in the House to warn of the coming Holocaust. Jack Macnamara MP visited Dachau and when he came back he said that we had to fight Hitler.
“Rob Bernays MP was called ‘a filthy Jew’ by Hitler’s friends in Germany.
“All three of them lost their lives and have shields on the walls of the Chamber. This is intimately about Parliament, democracy and antisemitism, and we have to put those things together.”
Jim Shannon, of the DUP said he hoped last week’s set back in the High Court “will not deter the Government from taking appropriate steps to facilitate a central permanent Holocaust Memorial centre to show that this great nation is united in ensuring that future generations understand the importance of remembering the holocaust as a horrifically sad and bloody lesson for everyone.”
In a ruling last Wednesday, the government’s application to the Court of Appeal in a bid to overturn the decision and reinstate planning permission for the Memorial and Learning Centre in Westminster was dismissed.
Judge Geraldine Andrews said:”There is no real prospect of successfully arguing that the judge’s construction of the 1900 Act was wrong.”
She added:”On the contrary, it was plainly correct. Once it is established that the judge was right about the statute, the other proposed grounds of appeal are fatally undermined.”
Andrews also dismissed one of the appeal grounds saying: “It is extremely unattractive for the losing party to argue that his opponent should not have been allowed to introduce a legal argument that turned out to be correct.”
A spokesperson for the Trust said: “We share widespread dismay that in deciding to build on a protected park, the government pursued this noble cause via an illegal path. Had a more suitable site been chosen, a Holocaust education centre would already be doing its essential work.
” City parks are not a blank canvass waiting for development but greenspaces protected for public enjoyment so we sincerely hope that revised plans for a memorial near to Parliament can co-exist with a substantial education centre in a more suitable setting.”
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