David Cameron announces Holocaust memorial to be built by Parliament

A memorial to the victims of the Holocaust will be erected in Victoria Tower Gardens beside Parliament, David Cameron has announced.

Downing Street said an international design competition would be launched and the monument built by 2017.

The prime minister told MPs the memorial would "show the importance Britain places on preserving the memory of the Holocaust".

The announcement comes as Holocaust Memorial Day is marked worldwide.

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Mr Cameron said the memorial would be "a permanent statement of our values as a nation" and something that would be visited "for generations to come".

David Cameron told MPs about the plans during Prime Minister's Questions

An education and learning centre will be also built beside the structure with £50m promised for the project.

Sir Peter Bazalgette, chairman of the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation, said it showed "we are doing the right thing for Britain's Holocaust survivors".

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said it would "send the strongest possible message... that the lessons of the Holocaust will forever form a part of our national consciousness".