Ed Miliband, the new Labour leader, has given his support to faith schools, calling them “fantastic”.

During an interview on Radio 5 Live this morning, he said: “Some faith schools – in fact many faith schools – do a fantastic job in our society and many of them also, people don’t often realise, take people from different backgrounds.

“I want good education in this country so I’m not going to slag off faith schools. It’s important for people of different backgrounds and faiths to go to school together and many faith schools do that.”

He also said he did not believe in God but had “great respect for those people who do”. “We are all, whether we have faith or not, very tolerant of people, whatever their view,” he said.

When asked if he believed Palestinians had a right of return, Mr Miliband said: “It depends which parts of the land and which borders and I’m not going to prejudge that. It’s important we do what we can to facilitate peace in the Middle East.

“I think what we need to work towards is a two-state solution and a two-state solution must involve Israel and the Palestinians getting together and reaching an agreement, I’m not going to pre-judge what that agreement should be.”