The Labour Party has reiterated its long-term support for faith schools in the wake of a poll in The Observer newspaper which found that nearly two-thirds of voters believe faith schools should not be funded by the state or should be abolished.
Labour has also called for cross-party talks on how religious education is conducted. But a Labour spokesman told The Tablet: “The Labour Party believes faith schools make a hugely valuable contribution to our schools system. England benefits from many outstanding faith schools which offer high quality education and ensure their students take on values of respect and understanding for other faiths and communities. A future Labour government would support them to continue to play this important role in the future.”
Significantly, Labour leader Ed Miliband was among the senior politicians including 22 Labour MPs who attended the recent National Prayer Breakfast. Mr Miliband deliberately arrived early in order to have time to talk to participants, notably the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who later gave the address. The Labour MP Stephen Timms chaired the gathering and the preparatory work for the event.
In his address the archbishop said that church schools promoted tolerance and pointed out that none of the schools in Birmingham caught up in allegations of infiltration by Islamic extremism were faith ones.
Some commentators have held up the Birmingham schools’ case as an argument against faith-based education.
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