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A Tory peer has apologised after saying Jewish people should pay for a London Holocaust memorial themselves because they have “an awful lot of money”.
Archie Hamilton, a former minister under Margaret Thatcher and John Major, said taxpayers’ money should not be used to pay for the memorial and education centre in Victoria Tower Gardens, next to parliament.
In a debate in the Lords, he said the park is too small for the proposed project, adding: “I do not understand why the government have volunteered taxpayers’ money, when there is so little of it, to finance this.
“The Jewish community in Britain has an awful lot of money. It has a lot of education charities that would contribute towards this. I do not understand why they should not pay for their own memorial.”
The Antisemitism Policy Trust said the comments were “ill-judged, racist and false” and it was “shocking that his slur was not challenged by those leading the debate”.
Ex-Labour MP Ian Austin, a crossbench peer, pushed back against Lord Hamilton’s comments saying the memorial is “not for the Jewish community… it is a memorial for everybody”.
Lord Hamilton replied that the “driving forces behind putting up this memorial are the Jewish people in this country”.
“They are people who have property everywhere. I do not see why they should not fund it. I just do not understand why the British taxpayer should be asked to pay for this when there is quite clearly a tremendous shortage of taxpayers’ money to go around,” Lord Hamilton added.
He was criticised by Tory peer Daniel Finkelstein, who hit back: “The noble Lord cannot stand up here and say, ‘The Jews want the Holocaust memorial, and they ought to pay for it’.
“The Holocaust is not something that is just about the Jews.”
Lord Hamilton pushed back saying that he has “plenty of Jewish blood” and is a member of the Conservative Friends of Israel.
The Antisemitism Policy Trust said Lord Hamilton’s comments were “ill-judged, racist and false”.
Its chief executive Danny Stone added that they “betrayed a lack of knowledge and understanding about the Jewish community and what the Holocaust memorial is for”.
“It is shocking that his slur was not challenged by those leading the debate. We will be working with parliamentarians to ensure this appalling rhetoric does not remain unchallenged,” he added.
In a statement issued after the debate, Lord Hamilton withdrew the remarks and apologised.
He said: “My remarks were not intended to be antisemitic and I apologise unreservedly.
“With hindsight, having read my comments , I realise that my remarks were insensitive and I apologise. I intend to meet with groups from the Jewish community in order to understand how to communicate about issues affecting British Jews.”
