Cabinet minister receives death threats for Holocaust memorial involvement

The minister for housing, Robert Jenrick, has received deaths threats after a Holocaust memorial was proposed to be erected at Westminster.

Mr Jenrick's involvement in the plans led to abuse and threats to burn down his home from opponents, which have resulted in him being given police protection.

He said to the Jewish Chronicle: "The behaviour of some of the opponents to the memorial has been shocking and disgraceful. The fact that I have been subjected to these smears, and my family to antisemitic abuse and death threats only shows the paramount importance of the memorial,"

Yesterday, a high court ruling was brought in about the proposal after London Historic Parks and Gardens Trust argued that there was a conflict of interest behind Jenrick's involvement in the memorial, which would feature 23 bronze statues and an underground learning centre.

This comes as it was discovered Mr Jenrick's children are Jewish and his wife is the daughter of Holocaust survivors. Jenrick, who then removed himself from the planning application after backing it in public, had his lawyers argue in court that the project decisions were objective.

Monday's high court ruling found that Mr Jenrick had acted appropriately in his decision.

Today marks the start of the inquiry into the proposal, where concerns will be raised about the memorial including worries of a target of terrorists and rightwing extremists and the unnecessary use of green space that local residents rely upon in Victoria Gardens.

Ever since the memorial was proposed five years ago by David Cameron, Holocaust academics warn that by putting the underground learning centre near Parliament, it "is likely to create a celebratory narrative of the British government's responses to the Jewish catastrophe during the Nazi era and beyond".