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A Tory MP has blown more than £20,000 of taxpayers’ cash asking scores of parliamentary questions about a Holocaust memorial just a few minutes’ walk from his house.

Conservative grandee Sir Edward Leigh has tabled 125 questions about the planned National Holocaust Memorial Centre and Learning Service since June 2017.

Yet the MP has asked just three written questions about his Lincolnshire constituency in the same period.

The right-winger has previously spoken out against the £50million Holocaust museum project, dismissing it as “really just a gimmick”.

And he has levelled a series of questions at the Communities Department, which is responsible for the scheme.

(Image: MHCLG/Adjaye Associates / SWNS)

According to the House of Commons, each written question costs £164 - meaning Sir Edward is likely to have lumped taxpayers with a £20,500 bill.

His Westminster home is just 700 yards from the proposed memorial site in Victoria Tower Gardens, next to the Houses of Parliament.

Labour MP John Mann, who supports the tribute and chairs Parliament’s cross-party group on anti-Semitism, said Sir Edward’s interest was “very, very odd in my view”.

Mr Mann, whose Bassetlaw constituency in Notts borders Sir Edward’s own seat of Gainsborough, added: “It is surprising that he is so upset.

“He’s my next-door neighbour and I haven’t noticed any opposition to the memorial from anybody in his constituency or mine.

“I have had nobody raise it with me negatively at all and I don’t believe there is anybody who has any opposition at all to it in Gainsborough – probably most people don’t give a damn either way.

“He needs to chill out on it.”

(Image: AFP/Getty Images)

Mr Mann said it would be “helpful” if Sir Edward revealed whether his interest stemmed from being “a near-neighbour” of the proposed site.

Due to be completed in 2021, the Holocaust memorial was announced by David Cameron in January 2016, five months before he quit as Prime Minister in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum result.

But the proposed location alongside the River Thames triggered opposition from a range of campaigners.

Experts warn it will hamper views of the Palace of Westminster and worsen congestion around the World Heritage Site.

Writing in 2017, Sir Edward laid out his objections to the location - but failed to mention he lived nearby.

He wrote in the Times: “This site is already a heavily-trafficked area.

“The traffic and access pressure will overwhelm Millbank at a location not capable of accommodating such a volume of people and vehicles, especially coaches.

“The Palace and Abbey of Westminster are recognised by Unesco as a World Heritage Site and there is some danger, based on Unesco’s rules and recommendations, that such a large project in Victoria Tower Gardens might threaten that designation.

“In addition, the plans call on building downwards beneath the ground of the park at a riverside location.

“This area faces serious drainage problems already, with 50 properties flooded from underneath in the rains of June 2016.”

The project has been backed by all five living former PMs: Theresa May , Mr Cameron, Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and Sir John Major.

Mrs May previously said that “seeing this through is a sacred national mission”.

She added: “This memorial will stand to preserve the truth forever - and this education centre will ensure that every generation understands the responsibility that we all share, to fight against hatred and prejudice in all its forms wherever it is found.”

Sir Edward, 69, did not respond to requests to comment.