Holocaust Memorial Bill

Lord Hacking Excerpts

3rd reading
Tuesday 17th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Robathan (Con)]

My Lords, bearing in mind the words of the Chief Whip, I congratulate and thank the Minister, who, throughout a rather long and torrid Committee and Report, showed tremendous courtesy. I thank him for that. I also thank the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, for her contribution to this, which I thought was very great. As somebody who cares hugely about the Jewish Holocaust and the ghastly thing it is, the site for the learning centre is wrong. It will be cramped and is not worthy of what we wish to commemorate. I say to the Minister and others that back this that I do not believe they will be built, because they are going to be so many problems once we start destroying Victoria Gardens to do so. But, on that note, I again congratulate the Minister and the Chief Whip on his words, and I will let him carry on.

[Lord Hacking (Lab)]

My Lords, while agreeing with the noble Lord who has just spoken, I would also like to agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, in her tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, for all her work on this Bill—right up to 1.15 last Thursday morning, and all the work that she put in at Second Reading and in Committee in the Moses Room.

I do not want to be disrespectful to the two Front Benches but, following the noble Lord who spoke just now, I have to say that I could argue that both Front Benches are like ostriches who have got their heads stuck in the sand. But I am getting a long frown from my Chief Whip and will not progress that argument further, but I ask all Members of the House to have a thought about that, because the consequences of this Bill are so adverse and destructive that I can only hope that the noble Lord on the Conservative Benches is right and this Bill will be lost.

[Lord Inglewood (CB)]

My Lords, I should declare my interest as president of Historic Buildings & Places. I congratulate the Government and all those who took part in the Bill. It was a learning process.

I have over the last 50 years earned my professional qualifications, worked as a professional and worked in other things, and the theme of my life has been land, land use, law and planning. I have to say to the House that, the more the Bill progressed, the more I became convinced that this proposal was overdevelopment and in the wrong place. I do not wish to say any more, other than, with sadness, that this Bill, the Holocaust Memorial Bill, will no doubt shortly be going on the statute. In my view. it is not properly named: it is the Victoria Tower Gardens Destruction Bill.