Politics
Tories urged to suspend peer who said ‘rich Jews’ should pay for Holocaust memorial
Lord Hamilton was accused of invoking ‘antisemitic tropes’ during a debate in Parliament this week
March 6, 2025 16:53
Lord Hamilton was accused of invoking ‘antisemitic tropes’ during a debate in Parliament this week
March 6, 2025 16:53The Conservative Party has been urged to remove the whip from a peer who allegedly invoked “antisemitic caricatures” during a debate in Parliament on Tuesday.
Lord Hamilton said the Jewish community had an “awful lot of money" and "property everywhere" during a discussion about the planned Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre, arguing that it should be funded by the community itself.
“I don't understand why the British taxpayer should be asked to pay for this,” he said, suggesting that Victoria Tower Gardens adjacent to Parliament was too “dominant” a location for the memorial.
A spokesman for the Tories condemned Hamilton’s comments as “completely unacceptable [and] flagrantly antisemitic”. The peer subsequently apologised, telling the JC: “My remarks were not intended to be antisemitic and I apologise unreservedly.
“With retrospect 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 better understand how to communicate about issues affecting British Jews.”
He has also asked for his comments to be withdrawn from the parliamentary record.
However, pressure is growing on the party to formally sanction Hamilton, who previously served as Minister of State for the Armed Forces under John Major while Conservative MP for Epsom and Ewell.
In a letter seen by the JC, Labour MP for Bury North James Frith, has urged Conservative co-chairs Nigel Huddleston and Lord Johnson, to withdraw the whip, stating: “Words are meaningless without action and the Party must suspend Lord Hamilton immediately.
“At a time of rising antisemitism, hate and division in society, we cannot have politicians engaging in clear-cut anti-Jewish language.”
Frith accused Hamilton of playing “into the classic antisemitic trope of Jewish wealth and power. It is the stereotyping of the Jewish community as uniquely wealthy with the ability to access property and wield power and influence.”
Likewise, a spokesperson for the Jewish Labour Movement told the JC: "These comments are straight from the old school antisemitism playbook, rehearsing well-known tropes about Jews, wealth and power. Were a Labour parliamentarian to have said them, the Tories would rightly be demanding firm disciplinary measures be taken.
"Condemnation is meaningless if it isn't backed by action. Kemi Badenoch should suspend the whip from Lord Hamilton."
The JC also understands that the Chief Executive of the Antisemitism Police Trust, Danny Stone, has also raised the issue with senior members of the party. Stone said: “We will be working with parliamentarians to ensure this appalling rhetoric does not remain unchallenged.”
Karen Pollock, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust added that Hamilton’s comments were “antisemitic and unacceptable.
“The suggestion that British Jews should pay for a national Holocaust Memorial because the Jewish community have ‘an awful lot of money’ is a disgraceful use of an age-old antisemitic trope which has no place in society.
“The proposed Holocaust Memorial will stand as a stark reminder of where this anti-Jewish racism can lead and it is disturbing and shocking to see such rhetoric in the House of Lords in 2025”
The criticism follows the revelation that, a day after his comments on the Holocaust memorial, he attended a meeting of the conduct committee to propose the removal of “the entitlement of members of either House to bring complaints of harassment against members of the House of Lords”.
On Wednesday, Hamilton proposed an amendment to the Parliamentary code of conduct which he claimed would prevent "miscarriages of justice being repeated" and suggested that some peers do not want to go on foreign trips or share taxis with other members for fear of being accused.
Baroness Manningham-Buller, chair of the committee, urged the House to reject the amendment if it goes to a vote on the basis that it could result in an “unravelling of the behaviour code”.