Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has asked for an investigation into why the sponsor of an application for a Holocaust memorial exhibition in Westminister Hall was informed it was likely to be turned down.
Speaker Hoyle and the other keyholders – the Lord Speaker and the Lord Great Chamberlain – were not involved in the decision-making process as the application was turned down at an early stage, Jewish News can reveal.
The installation, titled The Vicious Circle, was created by Marc Cave from the National Holocaust Centre and Museum, told the story of anti-Jewish pogroms from Kristallnacht in 1938 to Baghdad in 1941 and then October 7 2023.
But a decision was made that the exhibit did not fall within the criteria of being politically neutral and could therefore not be displayed in Westminister Hall for an exhibition.
Sir Lindsay told Jewish News: “I had absolutely no knowledge of this request, was never asked about it, and I am disappointed it was turned down without input from the Lord Speaker, Lord Great Chamberlain or myself.
“The Holocaust was one of the darkest chapters in human history. Six million Jewish people were exterminated by the Nazis, alongside the millions of other victims targeted by hate and tyranny.
“We have held five Holocaust Memorial Day ceremonies in the House of Commons, since I was elected Speaker, because it is so important that we remember those whose lives were cut short in the most brutal way, and hear the stories of those who survived, even as the burden of memory has weighed heavily on their shoulders.
“I have now asked for the House authorities to conduct an investigation into how this decision was reached.
“I would also like to meet with the organiser of the exhibition to find out more about it.”
The Speaker has maintained close relations with Jewish commununal organisations and last week led an early Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony in Portcullis House, featuring testimony from two survivors.
In a statement the Board of Deputies said they were aware Hoyle was not behind the decision to block the exhibition.
They added:”We are grateful to the Speaker for his concerted efforts to ensure the Parliamentary estate is a welcoming place for the Jewish community.”
The Board said they were now liasing with the National Holocaust Centre and Museum and with the orginisers of the exhibition “regarding next steps.”
Since he was elected in 2019, the Speaker has celebrated Chanukkah in Speaker’s House, and instigated an annual ceremony in Westminster Hall from 2023, which is now a fixture in the parliamentary calendar.
An exhibition, marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenhau, has been on display in Portcullis House for the past month, and features virtual survivor Manfred Goldberg.
A decision to block the intallation, as reported by The Times, provoked further anger because the Palestine Solidarity Campaign have previously been given the green light to set up a stall on more than one occasion in Westminister Hall.
After learning of the decision to ban the exhibition the National Holocaust Centre and Museum said on X:”We will be seeking clarification from Commons Speaker, whose objective assessment we would value, on the inconsistencies of Westminster Hall Advisory Group’s decision-making.”
Last July, Jewish News was alerted to concerns raised by visitors to Westminster, including familes of the Gaza hostages, about the prominent positioning of a PSC display inside the Hall, which was built in 1097.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign allowed to erect stall inside Westminister Hall in July 2024
A spokesperson at the time said signage was considered on a case-by-case basis and was used by the PSC to direct individuals to a mass anti-Israel lobby event, supported by Jeremy Corbyn and several other MPs.
The decision to block the Holocaust exhibition at Westminster Hall was revealed by Lord Pickles, the government’s special envoy on post-Holocaust issues, who told Times Radio:“Considering the timing of it, that we have just commemorated the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps put by Nazi Germany, I was frankly astounded.
“It just seems to me that if you are going to ensure that the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign has something there, it’s not unreasonable to have a government-funded exhibition there.
“Dealing with the questions of antisemitism, I mean, after all, Westminster Hall is where Churchill laid in state. Westminster Hall is where he received many honours. There was perhaps no greater fighter against antisemitism than Churchill. He would be appalled by this decision.”
The Times reported that Cave has secured spots for his exhibition at the European parliament in Brussels and the German parliament in Berlin.
He applied to bring it to Westminster Hall, for a week that would have included Holocaust Memorial Day, on January 27, but his application was rejected.
“It’s one of the great tragedies, I think, of the social media era, and my fear is that by parliament being perhaps more ready to house one side of the argument but not the other — that’s kind of dangerous,” Cave told Times Radio.
A parliamentary spokesman had told The Times : “Requests for exhibitions in Westminster Hall are taken on a case-by-case basis, and many requests are made throughout the year.
“These are completely different to mass lobbies — signage is considered on a case-by-case basis for the sole purposes of directing individuals during a mass lobby.”
Speaker Linsay Hoyle addresses the Westminster Hall Chanukah event
In 2023 Hoyle spoke to Jewish News after hosting a moving HMD event at Speakers House in parliament.
He said:”My grandfather had been in the First World War, and relatives fought in the Second World War who came back to tell the stories, of when they went into Germany.
“In Chorley, (Hoyle’s Lancashire home) you had some of the first people who went into the camps. And that always stood out.
“I want a better world. I want to make sure we don’t go back. The one thing we learnt about the Second World War, it was about the trials that brought people to justice.
“And to hear the harrowing stories of evil people, and what they carried out is so important.
“And that’s why I want my Speakership to be one in which we do all we can to make sure this never happens again.”
He also spoke of his late MP father Doug Hoyle’s links with the Labour Friends of Israel organisation .
“My father helped found Labour Friends of Israel, so you know, there is history within my family,” he told Jewish News.
A former chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party who was made a life peer, Doug Hoyle passed away last April.
In December, the Speaker confirmed that an annual Chanukah event, organised by Lord Mann and the All Party Group Against Antisemitism, would take place every year in the Hall.
