Over 170 MPs and peers from across the political spectrum this week signed a letter in support of the proposal to build a National Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre outside Parliament.
The site of the memorial is proposed to be in Victoria Tower Gardens, Westminster.
Written by co-chairs of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Holocaust Memorial, MPs Ian Austin and Bob Blackman, the letter, signed by 171 MPs and peers, urges Westminster Council’s Planning Committee to back the application.
Signatories include CFI Parliamentary Chairmen Rt. Hon. Lord Pickles and Rt. Hon Stephen Crabb MP, CFI Honorary President Lord Polak CBE, Rt. Hon. Dominic Raab, Rt. Hon. Nicky Morgan MP and Rt. Hon. Robert Halfon MP, Labour’s Emily Thornberry, Yvette Cooper, Barry Gardiner and Lord Dubs, as well as the Scottish National Party’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford and Green MP Caroline Lucas.
They say the memorial is necessary, “as the Holocaust moves from living memory into history” and as antisemitism rises in society, adding that Shoah “education and remembrance is ever more crucial”.
Shortly after the letter was published, Communities Secretary Rt. Hon. James Brokenshire MP said: “I believe there can be no more fitting place, no more powerful symbol of our commitment to remembering” Holocaust victims.
The letter comes after Royal Parks, which looks after the gardens, criticised the planning application for the project, which is being considered by Westminster Council.
