Blair: keeping the faith

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

Speaking on Tuesday following the publication of a Home Office report which found that faith-based education had played a role in damaging community relations in areas such as Oldham, Burnley and Bradford, Number 10 said that Tony Blair remained committed to increasing the number of children educated in faith schools.

Denying that the government was getting cold feet, a Downing Street spokesman said that the prime minister believed it was important that the number of faith schools increased in the state sector - where they are subject to the national curriculum and race relations laws.

The spokesman said that faith-based schools operating in the state sector had a "statutory duty to be inclusive and work with other schools".

Despite strong evidence that faith-based education played a key part in fuelling the racial tensions which led to the summer's race riots, Blair is still said to believe that they are "a good idea".

However, some have claimed that the government is shifting its position on the issue, believing that ministers see the policy as a means of bringing hardline religious schools out of the private sector, where they are free to teach what they wish, to the state sector, where they "have a duty to be inclusive".