One of the most prominent critics of the plan for a £50 million Holocaust memorial in Westminster has accused supporters of the project of using “mob pressure” to “railroad” it through.

Baroness Deach, a crossbench peer, claimed an All-Party Parliamentary Group meeting on Tuesday was packed “with people who may never have taken an interest in Holocaust issues before but had clearly been assembled in order to block any variety of views.”

She added: "A motion, not seen before, was railroaded through; a pre-prepared list of officers was greeted by shouting in support.

“It was thoroughly undemocratic and indicative of the way this project is being railroaded through. The few of us who had something to say that was directed at the details of the scheme were dismissed.

“Mob pressure is precisely not the way in which a Holocaust Memorial should be planned. I was dismayed. We need open debate on this.”

Last week, Baroness Deech was among a group of peers including  Lord Sterling, the President of AJEX, Conservative peer Lord Grade and Labour peer Lord Haskel who wrote to The Times suggesting the location and design of the memorial “evokes neither the Holocaust nor Jewish history, and the risk is that is purpose will not be obvious to passers-by and it will not be treated with appropriate respect”.