Downing Street has insisted that it will press on with expanding the number of faith schools despite evidence that they contribute to racial segregation.

Number 10 said that Tony Blair remained committed to increasing the number of children educated in faith schools.

The Home Office's Cantle report mounted a challenge to Labour's planned expansion of faith schools. "A significant problem is posed by existing and future mono-cultural schools, which can add to separation of communities," it warned. "The development of more faith-based schools may, in some cases, lead to an increase in monocultural schools but this problem is not in any way confined to them."