Prime minister and Jewish leaders welcome passage of bill establishing Westminster Holocaust centre

The prime minister welcomed the bill being granted royal assent and said he was “pleased we are able to move one step closer to delivering this memorial”.

Sir Keir Starmer continued: “Having met survivors, heard their shattering and inspiring testimonies, and walked through Auschwitz myself, I know how vital it is that every generation has the chance to learn from their wisdom and courage. Their stories are proof of the light and hope that endures even after humanity’s darkest days.

“Located at the heart of our democracy, this memorial will help us remember where hatred and indifference can lead. It will strengthen our national commitment to challenge prejudice wherever it appears and to defend the values that bind us together.

“This is how we make ‘never again’ not just a principle of remembrance, but a promise we uphold - a collective responsibility to ensure the lessons of the Holocaust are neither forgotten nor ignored.”

The plans were also welcomed by Jewish communal leaders.

Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis said that the passage of the bill was “a significant and long‑awaited moment for our country”.

“It reflects a clear commitment to remembrance and to ensuring that the lessons of the Holocaust are not forgotten,” he went on.

“This memorial and learning centre will stand in the memory of the six million Jewish women, men and children, and as a reminder of the responsibility we all carry to confront hatred, antisemitism and indifference wherever they appear.”

Karen Pollock CBE, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, added: “We have a duty to preserve their testimony so that future generations understand what happened during the Holocaust and where antisemitism and hatred can lead if left unchecked”.

She also paid tribute to the late Holocaust survivor Manfred Goldberg, a supporter of the plans for a memorial and learning centre: “As we mark this important milestone, I think of the late Manfred Goldberg MBE, a Holocaust survivor who three years ago spoke of his dream to see it completed. We owe it to him, and to all survivors, to ensure this memorial is finally built.”

Board of Deputies President Phil Rosenberg said that the memorial “will safeguard the continued memory of the Shoah, and ensure that antisemitism, prejudice and extremism remain a common priority of national concern” and paid tribute to the government for “getting the legislation over the line”.

Similarly, the Jewish Leadership Council said: “We are pleased that the Holocaust Memorial Bill has passed all its Parliamentary stages.

“While there is still a long way to go before planning is granted and the memorial is constructed, this is a positive and essential step in that process.”

During the bill’s passage through Parliament, though, some critics warned that the proposed memorial and learning centre’s central location could result in it becoming a target for anti-Israel demonstrators.

Baroness Deech told peers in 2024: “The irony of the Westminster location is that this is the very area where hate-filled marches have taken place for weeks, the police being unable or unwilling to stop them; where politicians have been unable to protect Jewish students from abuse and do not shy away from undermining protection of the land where the Holocaust survivors took refuge. Westminster: where misinformation in the media spreads hate uncontrolled.

"A new learning centre here would be a model of complacency; an excuse for those who call themselves non-racists to pose by it; a defence against excessive anti-Israelism.”

Her concerns were echoed by Baroness Fox: “Let us imagine today visitors emerging from the learning centre and looking up from Victoria Tower Gardens to parliament.

“What would they see, if we were being honest? This week [as the UK suspended arms licenses to Israel], they would see a betrayal – British politicians attempting to disarm the Jewish nation after it suffered the worst act of antisemitic barbarism since the Holocaust. Turn the gaze the other way: I worry that politicians will look out to Victoria Park Gardens at this new memorial and conclude, complacently, ‘We built that. It proves that we’re fighting antisemitism and, what’s more, we’re now stamping down on far-right bigotry’.

“So dazzled by its own creation, Parliament will turn a blind eye to the tens of thousands of progressives carrying placards featuring swastikas defiling symbols of Israel, or turn a deaf ear to the ugly pro-jihadist, antisemitic chants in the Westminster vicinity. There is a lot more to fighting antisemitism than props. Finding a fitting memorial and a proper way of teaching and learning is not contained within this proposal.”