Labour’s Ian Austin has rejected claims that MP and Peers were “railroaded” into attending the meeting of a parliamentary group to endorse the £50 million Holocaust Memorial project

Mr Austin, the MP for Dudley North, was elected as joint chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on the National Holocaust Memorial alongside Conservative MP Bob Blackman, at the inaugral meeting.

Following a vote an overwhelming majority of the 50 MPs and Peers present for the meeting, a motion was passed stating: "The learning centre, which will examine the Holocaust through British eyes and examine subsequent genocides, is an exciting and important asset to the Gardens, which will be much improved physically by the initiative."

After last month’s meeting, Baroness Deach, a crossbench peer of critic of the memorial project, claimed it 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.”

But Mr Austin, whose Jewish father was the only member of his  side of the family to escape the Nazis, told the JC: “I think it is brilliant that so many MPs and peers are interested in the new group and want to support work in Parliament to remember the victims of the Holocaust and educate people about history’s greatest crime.

"I think it is a very exciting project and I’m delighted that so many parliamentarians will be working to support the new Memorial and Learning Centre here in Westminster, at a site of such importance not just to our politics, but at the heart of our national life as well.”

The group elected four vice-chairs, two each from the Government and two from the Opposition, who are Theresa Villiers and Lord Shinkwin, and Joan Ryan and Jon Mendelson.

Its treasurer is Lord Polak and our Secretary is Ruth Smeeth. The group also appointed as honorary presidents Lord Pickles and former MP Ed Balls.