Sir Eric Pickles has given new details about the concept behind the learning centre that will be opened alongside the £50 million Holocaust memorial in Westminster.

Speaking at a Holocaust Educational Trust fringe event at the Tory Party conference, Sir Eric, who co-chairs the memorial advisory committee with Ed Balls, said the learning centre would aim to "explore the Holocaust through British eyes."

Sir Eric added: "At a time when other parts of Europe are trying to rewrite their history we are going to look at our history in an unblinkered way.

"We will talk about the kindertransport - but we will also remind people it was 'kinder' because we wouldn't let the parents in."

He said the centre would also detail Britain's role in the liberation of the Belsen - but then also explore the subsequent imprisonment of Jewish refugees on the Isle of Man.

He added the centre would also "talk about the blockade in Palestine - we will ensure that it is rounded."

The Conservative co-chair and former Communities and Local Government Secretary also told the meeting - at which Holocaust survivor Susan Pollack spoke movingly - how documents from the 1930s had been found outlining the British definition of what constituted antisemitism at that time.

He said: "Here was a definition in the British foreign office describing what antisemitism was and it was this: 'Someone who disliked Jews more than normal'."

Earlier, Susan Pollack, 88, received two standing ovations from the packed audience after she recounted how after the German invasion of Hungary in March 1944, she and her family were sent by cattle truck to Auschwitz-Birkenau where her mother was sent directly to the gas chambers. Ms Pollack carried out slave labour, working until she was relocated to Bergen-Belsen, another camp in northern Germany.

When she was liberated by the British army on April 15 1945, Ms Pollack said she “couldn’t walk or move”.

Asked for her thoughts on the antisemitism crisis in the Labour Party, she accused Jeremy Corbyn of a "shameful" lack of leadership.

But Ms Pollack, who also appeared at a HET event at last week's Labour Conference in Liverpool, said she was not hesitate to go back and speak to Mr Corbyn's party members again.

The Holocaust memorial and learning centre project at Victoria Tower Gardens, next to Parliament, has not been without criticism.

Some have questions its location in a busy and congested public space - while others have cited the existence of a Holocaust exhibition at the nearby Imperial war Museum.