Lord Eric Pickles has hit back at the Royal Parks’ opposition to the proposed Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre, saying it "wrong-headed" to object to the plans and has been "against it as a matter of principle from the very beginning”.

Plans for the national monument suffered a blow after the Royal Parks, which manages Victoria Tower Gardens, where it is to be built, submitted a letter of objection to Westminster City Council.

The council is considering an application the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation's (UKHMF) application to build on the park, which is next to the Houses of Parliament.

The Royal Parks described the gardens as a “highly sensitive location in planning and heritage terms”, objecting to the proposal “given the impact it will have on a popular public amenity space in an area of the capital with few public parks”.

Lord Pickles, the co-chair of UKHMF, said he “regrets" the objection, saying UKHMF has “enjoyed very good relations with the officials of the Royal Parks” in previous dealings.

He added: “But their board has been against it as a matter of principle from the very beginning.

“No matter how much we’ve done to make the park a better place, they continue to oppose it as a matter of principle.

“I think they’re wrongheaded in that.”

While the Royal Parks managemes Victoria Tower Gardens, it is not a Royal Park – so the body does not have an automatic power veto over the plans.

The proposed location has attracted controversy, with more than 11,000 members of the public signing an online petition calling for the protection of the green space.

Although most Westminster residents supported the Holocaust Memorial, most of the 626 public responses objected to the plans to build it in of Victoria Tower Gardens.

Others have suggested that the location, near to Parliament, wrongly conveys a sense of national guilt over the Shoah.

While he admitted the “optics” of a dispute with local residents “wouldn’t be great”, Lord Pickles defended UKHMF’s preferred location.

He said: “We have a very proud record, as far as the Holocaust is concerned – the Kindertransport, the liberation of Bergen-Belsen – but it’s a mixed record.

“We have to remember it was only recently the Foreign Secretary apologised for the 1939 White Paper which restricted the number of Jewish migrants to Palestine.

"The Kindertransport was there because we wouldn’t let their parents in.

“We are living at a time when there are countries that are seeking to re-write their history and their involvement in the Holocaust.

“Unless we have a clear, unblinking view of the way in which the United Kingdom touched upon the Holocaust, we can’t look those countries in the eye and demand those countries ensure their histories are untainted by romanticism.”

The Royal Parks said: “As the charity managing Victoria Tower Gardens, our role is to ensure that the intrinsic qualities of this green space are protected for the benefit of all our visitors and, having studied the planning application in detail, we feel strongly that this is not the right location for it.

“The impact that the proposed structure will have on this much-loved public amenity space, in an area of central London with few public parks, is significant.”