Baroness Ruth Deech has argued that the alleged “public benefit” of a Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre in Westminster is “in part guesswork and in part a political decision unrelated to the benefit of the victims or their descendants.”

Giving evidence at the public inquiry into the controversial project on Tuesday, the cross-bench peer set out her objections to the proposal, which is planned to be built next to the Houses of Parliament.

The former BBC governor - whose late historian father Josef Fraenkel fled Vienna and then Prague from the Nazis while several other her family members were murdered in concentration camps  - said: “The decision to shoehorn this Memorial and Learning Centre into Victoria Tower Gardens means that nearly all of the objectives set out for it have not been met.

“An opportunity has been lost, maybe for ever, to have a suitable and effective memorial simply because it is being tailored to fit into [the park] rather than finding a site that is suitable.

“It is like the Bed of Procrustes -  the feet of the victim were cut off to make sure he fitted into the bed. It will also be ineffective as a learning centre.”

Architect David Adjaye later defended the scale of his project which features 23 large bronze fin structures and an underground learning centre, which has increased in size since the original plan.

He told the inquiry “the development of the narrative of the Learning Centre required extra area. It became clearer what we needed.”

The award winning designer added: “What excited us about this project was this combination, this idea of having not just a memorial you go to in the traditional sense but one you can  enter to experience a learning centre.”