Holocaust Memorial Day

Baroness Ramsey of Wall Heath Excerpts

Monday 26th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Ramsey of Wall Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, it is an honour to follow the noble Lord, Lord Shinkwin, and to have heard the brilliant speech from the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Coventry—I am pleased to welcome another sort-of West Midlander—and so many powerful speeches from all noble Lords. I look forward to listening to the rest of the debate and, if I may be allowed to say, particularly to my fellow West Midlander, the noble Lord, Lord Austin, whose father was my inspirational head teacher at secondary school.

My father, Jim Ramsey, was a soldier during the Second World War, in a flail tank in the Westminster Dragoons and he was part of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen in April 1945. Sadly, he died in 1990 but, while I was growing up, he told me what he had seen there. He was deeply shocked and appalled, and told us, his children, about it during the 1970s and 1980s because he wanted us to know, and for us to then tell others what he had told us, making a reality of Bridging Generations, the theme of this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day.

Survivors of the camps are now dwindling to tiny numbers and their stories must live on through their families and fantastic organisations such as the Holocaust Educational Trust and the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, to which I pay tribute. I share my father’s conviction of the importance of bearing witness by continuing to repeat accounts by the men and women who saw what had happened in the camps. This extract was kindly given to me by the Westminster Dragoons Regimental Association; it is taken from a report on the concentration camp at Belsen, Germany, by a fellow member of my father’s regiment:

“Belsen is a small village 11 miles from Celle, which is in the province of Hanover. About a mile south of Belsen there is a concentration camp … The conditions at Belsen camp were ghastly. Obviously it was used as a place where the prisoners could be exterminated slowly and with least trouble to the Reich. This extermination took place in the form of slow starvation; the rations were a bowl of swede or turnip soup per person every day and a loaf of rye bread between 12 persons every week. Thus the bare minimum was given; a minimum which would not allow anyone to die quickly of starvation, but which would make him or her gradually waste away into a living skeleton. When this happened death either followed by typhus or mere collapse. It was reckoned that at least 400 persons died every day.


When the camp was first entered by British troops, they were met by a sight which we in England would think impossible of a ‘civilised’ nation such as Germany. All over the grounds of the camp lay the bodies of what had once … been men and women. It was impossible to miss seeing bodies. Two over there—nine in front of the barbed wire, a large pile of 40 outside one of the huts—it was hard to walk without stepping on them as they lay on the ground. They were there because to begin with the prisoners were too weak to move their comrades away to bury them, and secondly because the SS guards were either too lazy to move them or because there were too many to move, and as they were buried more died. In one part of the camp there was a large pit. It was 80 feet deep, and in the bottom there was a mass of corpses, half buried with earth. It was said that the pit had been 20 feet deeper, but that the last consignment of bodies had filled up that 20 feet. At this moment Hungarian guards are digging another pit for those prisoners whom our doctors know will die shortly from typhus.


Today is the 25th of April 1945. The British have been at the camp for almost a week. They buried 1,200 people yesterday and 1,700 the day before, and there will be more to bury tomorrow. But things will gradually become better as the food we are giving them builds them up.


It is quite probable that many of the people in England who read accounts of this concentration camp, despite the fact that there are photographs to prove it, will think that the whole thing is vastly exaggerated and that it is just a move in the effort to foster the feeling of hate against the Germans—a feeling which admittedly the average Englishman does not like to show. He believes in sport and fair play … and anyhow, how in the world could another country do such terrible things when we don’t do them? Also we haven’t seen with our own eyes so we don’t believe, and it’s better forgotten anyhow”.


I have read only extracts from the report; I apologise to Members for how upsetting it is, but, bearing in mind the words of the noble Baroness, Lady Ludford, it seems appropriate to read them today. The final line written by that solider is:

“Do you think it’s better forgotten?”


I do not know who he was addressing that to, but I think he agreed with my father.

That anxiety that the testimony of returning soldiers would either not be believed or not be passed on to future generations was shared by my father, as well as the utter horror of what he had witnessed. How dismaying it was therefore to learn, from the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s October 2020 report, that the Labour Party had been dealing so inadequately with antisemitism under its previous leadership, and that complaints of individual members sharing Holocaust denial on social media had not even been investigated.

When Keir Starmer became leader, he was determined to root out antisemitism in the party. As part of this vital endeavour, I was asked to lead the work needed to address the recommendations made in the commission’s damning report. It was terrible that such work was necessary, but what a fitting opportunity it was for me to honour my father. The EHRC had identified political interference in the handling of antisemitism complaints, so I had the task of developing an independent complaints system from scratch. I also established a proper process to engage with Jewish community stakeholders, and I oversaw the devising and delivery of a programme of antisemitism awareness training for use across the party for all staff and parliamentarians.

I worked closely with the Jewish Labour Movement, which was led so effectively at that time by my now noble friends Lord Katz and Lady Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent, as well as Dame Louise Ellman, Rebecca Filer, Peter Mason and Adam Langleben. I worked with Danny Stone of the Antisemitism Policy Trust and Adrian Cohen of the Jewish Leadership Council, as well as Marie van der Zyl, the then president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and her successor, Phil Rosenberg. I also came to hugely respect Dave Rich and all those at the Community Security Trust; obviously, that work is ongoing, for reasons that other noble Lords have mentioned today.

Under Keir’s leadership, and with the support and challenge of all those wonderful people, the Labour Party succeeded in turning things round. The EHRC lifted its legal enforcement action against the party, and no longer did the Chief Rabbi find himself needing to intervene publicly in the general election, as he had done in 2019. But, of course, antisemitism is still very much with us today, as we all saw last October with the horrific attack on worshippers at the Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur. Therefore, Holocaust Memorial Day retains its vital role in ensuring that we all remember and—more than this—that we all do whatever we can to tackle antisemitism wherever we see it.

Elections: Political Party Spending

Baroness Ramsey of Wall Heath Excerpts

Monday 9th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

The noble Lord makes a very important point, and, like many others, I have heard a lot about DOGE in Kent. Local government funding is incredibly complex and, if what I have seen in the press is true, it is very important that anyone looking into this has a very detailed understanding of the subject. We have our own regulatory bodies, including CIPFA, which do great work in that area.

On breaches of donations, the rules are a matter for the Electoral Commission or the police. The Electoral Commission already has the power to investigate and to impose civil penalties where it is satisfied there has been a breach. As part of our commitment to strengthening the rules on donations, which, very importantly, include donations in kind, we are also reviewing whether any changes are required to the role and powers of the regulator to make sure that rules across the political finance framework are effectively enforced.

[Baroness Ramsey of Wall Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, what plans does my noble friend the Minister have to tighten the rules on foreign donations to ensure that donations are made only from profits generated in the United Kingdom?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

My noble friend makes a very important point, one that we have discussed in the Chamber before. I can assure her that the Government take the threat posed by disinformation and foreign actors interfering in our democratic processes very seriously. It is and always will be an absolute priority to protect the UK against foreign interference. While it is clear that foreign donations to political parties are not permitted, the Government recognise the risk posed by malign actors who seek to interfere with and undermine our democratic processes, which is why we will take all necessary steps to ensure that effective controls are in place to safeguard our democratic processes. As I said before, we plan to provide further details on our election strategy in the summer.

Holocaust Memorial Day

Baroness Ramsey of Wall Heath Excerpts

Thursday 13th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Ramsey of Wall Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, it is an honour and a pleasure to follow my noble friend Lord Evans of Sealand and to be the first to congratulate him on an inspiring maiden speech. I have known the noble Lord for many years and can confirm that he is definitely no bystander. He has always been a man of action—and I do not include his support for that peculiar football team, Chester—whether in support of his brother on the high street, or in taking on the BNP in east London and, regrettably for me, the anti-Semites in the Labour Party when he became general secretary in 2020. He will be a great asset to your Lordships’ House.

I was so pleased to be able to support his efforts when he was general secretary, under the leadership of the now Prime Minister Keir Starmer, to tackle the scourge of anti-Semitism in our party, which, as we heard from my noble friend, is one of his three families. The need to do the work that we did, hand in hand with my noble friends Lord Katz and Lady Anderson, and so many others, is proof, if ever any were needed, that marking Holocaust Memorial Day is more important now than ever. I bear in mind the comments of the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, on this subject.

We must always be vigilant and determined men and women of action. That is what I see right across this House. I saw it when I was working for the Labour Party in helping to lead its response to the damning report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission into anti-Semitism in the Labour Party. I saw it then in the calm and assured roles that the late lamented Lord Kerslake and the wonderful noble Baroness, Lady Prosser, played in overseeing the recruitment of the independent complaint adjudicators to ensure that anti-Semitism—indeed, all acts of discrimination—could be rooted out.

I also saw that vigilance and determination in the unwavering support and oversight of the work by my noble friends Lady Hodge, Lady Royall and Lady Lawrence, alongside Jewish communal stakeholders, including—I am very anxious about leaving out some names—the then president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Marie van der Zyl, the current president, Phil Rosenberg, the wonderful Adrian Cohen and the Jewish Leadership Council, the Jewish Labour Movement, which was absolutely central, the Antisemitism Policy Trust, the fantastic Community Security Trust, and those JLM members who were so fundamental, Peter Mason and Adam Langleben, among others. I have seen it too since having the honour of joining your Lordships’ House, including in the powerful maiden speeches from my noble friends Lord Katz and Lady Levitt.

I have also been inspired by the hugely impressive ways in which the noble Lord, Lord Finkelstein, brings the horrors of the Holocaust to life in his writings for today’s generations by sharing his family’s terrible testimony regarding, among other things, Bergen-Belsen. I am inspired by the wisdom and generosity of spirit of my noble friend Lord Dubs and by hearing of his remarkable experiences of the Kindertransport, and from listening to the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, speaking of his family’s horrific experiences. I found listening to the words of the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, deeply moving, as has been other testimony in the House today.

It was only after joining your Lordships’ House that I learned, from the noble Lord, Lord Austin, that I had been inspired by another child refugee from the Holocaust many years ago. Without me even realising it at the time, his father was my head teacher at secondary school. I only learned of Mr Austin’s experience of the Nazis decades after being taught by him and his wife—the noble Lord’s mother—I assume because back then people did not really talk about it, at least not outside their families.

Indeed, it was from my own family that I learned about the horrors of the Holocaust. When I was growing up, my father told me of his time in the Westminster Dragoons, a tank regiment which landed on Sword beach on D-day. He then drove, with his comrades, his flail tank across northern France and eventually found himself part of the liberating forces at Bergen-Belsen. My dad never forgot what he saw there. I am not going to talk about that because others have spoken about those horrors so eloquently and with even more experience than I have of hearing about it. He said that I should never forget what he told me about and what he had seen. He wanted his children to know, to remember and to speak of it—as I am doing today in his honour. He worried even then, when we were children growing up and as teenagers, that some people were denying that it had ever happened and forgetting about it. By continuing to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, as all noble Lords have done so eloquently today, we can and must make sure that no one ever forgets.