A former Archbishop of Canterbury has described the plans to put a National Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre in Victoria Tower Gardens, next to the Houses of Parliament, as “strange choice.”

Speaking to the Times, Lord Williams of Oystermouth, who was the Church of England’s most senior clergyman between 2002 and 2012, described the site as “a fig leaf covering a lack of sustained thinking” about better ways to tackle a “rising tide of antisemitism.”

He said: “Important questions are being raised about how we educate people about the Holocaust and I’m not sure they are being adequately addressed.

“The problem raised by the scheme is not only about the appropriateness of the location. It is about whether an expensive government-backed ‘legacy’ project will divert attention and resources from any sustained attempt to see what really works in education. Getting that right is very important.”

He is not the first to voice concerns over the location. 

Plans have been criticised by a number of organisations, from Unesco to the Environment Agency and Historic England, as well local residents, who have argued that it will ruin the park and result in the deaths of hundreds of ancient plane trees.

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis was among those to support for the £100 million project, which has almost doubled in cost this year.

The Chief Rabbi was on the panel of judges to pick the preferred memorial design by Sir David Adjaye, the British-Ghanaian architect.

However it has attracted opposition from leading Jewish figures such as Baroness Deech and Lord Wasserman.

Holocaust expert Dr Irene Lancaster was another to add her voice to the criticism. 

She said she thought the memorial would not be “to the victims but to the political egos that are trying to push it through”.

Lord Williams told the Times: “No one disputes the urgency of fighting back against antisemitism nationally and internationally.

“But the scheme is proving divisive within the Jewish community where a good many influential commentators are arguing that the proposal could be a fig leaf covering a lack of sustained thinking about educational strategies.”

Last month the decision on whether to approve the memorial was taken out of the hands of the local council and is expected to be settled nationally.

Housing Minister Esther McVey used her powers to “call in” the application for the £100 million project and refer it to the Planning Inspectorate.

Westminster Council had been expected to discuss the application three months ago amid intense lobbying for and against it but no date was scheduled.

The council had accused Lord Pickles, who is overseeing the scheme, of keeping them in the dark.

Dr Lancaster said: “The government has trampled over democratic rights by removing the planning decision from Westminster council. But much more fundamentally, it is riding roughshod over so much Jewish opinion which believes that constructing a large building in London would be ineffective at tackling national antisemitism.”