Labour's Shadow Education Secretary has reaffirmed his party's support for faith schools and called on the Jewish community to lead the way in encouraging cross-cultural dialogue.

In a wide-ranging speech at JFS in London on Tuesday evening, Tristram Hunt also spoke passionately of his support for Israel.

Referring to the Trojan Horse inquiry into allegations of Islamic extremism in Muslim schools last summer, he said it was essential for the state to support parents who wanted their children to be educated at faith schools.

But he warned that the state "cannot allow any school it funds to become a cultural silo to the extent that distrust, antagonism and hostility to any other communities begins to take root.

"This is what happened in some Birmingham schools. Antisemitic attitudes were part of that."

Mr Hunt said he wanted JFS - Europe's biggest Jewish school - and the wider Jewish community to "show leadership and forward-thinking" as part of the national discussion over identity and multi-culturalism.

Reflecting on the rise in antisemitism in Britain in the past six months, Mr Hunt highlighted the "latent discrimination of boycotts".

He praised the Community Security Trust's efforts to protect Jewish schools and pledged to continue government funding for the charity if Labour comes to power in May.

Mr Hunt also cited a Winston Churchill speech on Jerusalem's Mount Scopus in 1921 in which the great politician outlined "full sympathy for Zionism" and the pursuit of a Jewish national home.

"How right he was," Mr Hunt said. "Israel is a symbol of new life and opportunity springing from the ashes of misery. More than that, it is a beacon to the Jewish world."

The shadow minister was one of a number of Labour front-benchers who abstained in the Commons vote on Palestinian statehood in October.