A Jewish Tory peer has criticised plans for a national Holocaust memorial next to Parliament,
Lord Wasserman said he had nothing against the scheme itself but that the location, in Victoria Tower Gardens, next to the Palace of Westminster, was a mistake.
He said: I fear that in five years we will say the memorial was a terrible idea because of the congestion it will cause. I have no reservations about a memorial, just the location.”
Lord Wasserman’s criticism is significant because he is a close ally of David Cameron. Plans for the memorial, along with an accompanying learning centre, were unveiled by the former prime minister last year, who said the monument would “stand beside parliament as a statement of our values as a nation”.
The peer, who joined the Lords in 2011, told The Times: “I have nothing but the greatest respect for David Cameron. But it doesn’t mean that every decision of his was right: after all, he called the referendum [on Brexit].”
Ten teams, shortlisted from almost 100 entries from 26 countries, have submitted designs for the memorial.
They will be judged by an independent jury including Communities Secretary Sajid Javid, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, the Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, and Holocaust survivor Ben Helfgott, and chaired by Sir Peter Bazalgette, the chair of the United Kingdom Holocaust Memorial Foundation.
The jury will select the winner later this year after a public consultation seeking views from communities across the UK.
Rabbi Mirvis said the memorial would be “an enduring symbol of the UK’s absolute commitment to Holocaust education and to challenge hatred wherever we find it.
“The quality of the shortlisted design teams leaves me in no doubt that the eventual winner will rise to the tremendous responsibility of appropriately capturing these commitments.”
But residents in Westminster and some MPs have expressed about the impact of the memorial on the area, with over one million visitors expected every year.
An exhibition of the shortlisted designs will open at Westminster Hall on Monday.
