Leading article: Faith in votes

Catholic, Jewish and Muslim leaders were united in their outrage this week at government proposals to require all new faith schools to take 25 per cent of pupils from other faiths. Alan Johnson's amendment to the Education Bill, which is going through the House of Lords, aims to tackle criticism that Labour's expansion of faith schools will lead to segregation.

But the reality has to be that few parents will want to send their children to a faith school when they do not share those beliefs. This appears to be a vote-catching scheme that will have little effect on the real problem of segregation and schools.