Faith schools test Cameron's social responsibility

David Cameron will put his pledge to uphold "social responsibility not state responsibility" to the test this month when peers debate faith school quotas.

The Conservative leader will not back Lord Baker of Dorking's amendment for all faith schools to accept 30 per cent of their pupils from other backgrounds when the education and inspections bill returns to the House of Lords.

In a debate earlier this year, the senior Tory peer argued his amendment would prevent schools being exclusive. He suggested those institutions that failed to meet this target would have state funding withdrawn – "the iron hand in my velvet glove".

This week Mr Cameron won applause from delegates at the Tory party conference for stating that although he supports faith schools, "if these schools are to be British state schools, they must be part of our society, not separate from it".

He welcomed the Church of England's announcement that all new church schools would have a quarter of pupils from non-Anglican backgrounds, saying: "The time has come for other faith groups to show similar social responsibility.

"If we are to bring society together, then schools – all schools – must teach children that wherever they come from, if they are British citizens, they are inheritors of a British birthright."

However, he stressed that religious organisations should take their own initiative, backing the church for "deciding to take responsibility for community cohesion – society not the state".

And his spokesman today said that despite concerns of some of his party, he will not back Lord Baker's amendment when it goes before the upper House later this month, but will give Tory peers a free vote.

Earlier this week, education secretary Alan Johnson praised the Church of England's announcement as underlining the importance of "having the right ethos which encourages social responsibility, high aspirations, good citizenship and mutual understanding".

The Roman Catholic church also said at the time that it would revise its inspection frameworks to ensure that judgments about the contribution Catholic schools made to social cohesion were made public.

However, the Catholic Education Service (CES) reacted angrily to the message of forced integration included in Lord Baker's amendment. Chief executive Oona Stannard said it would "undermine and threaten existing harmonious relationships".