A LABOUR cabinet member is at the forefront of a party split prompted by plans to create a Muslim faith local authority-aided school in Blackburn.

Coun Andy Kay, executive member for regeneration at Blackburn with Darwen Council said the faith schools programme should be scrapped and the priority should be on integrating children.

And he is expected to be backed by a breakaway group of Labour councillors -- the first public split in the party since the executive board was introduced in 2001 -- when the plan is discussed by the council tonight.

Labour councillors voted to back council leader Bill Taylor over the proposals after a protracted debate at a meeting of the Labour group on Tuesday.

But one councillor who attended the meeting described it as a 'blood on the floor affair' and said: "There are a lot of unhappy councillors who feel they are being pushed into a corner because he (Coun Taylor) announced it so quickly."

But Coun Kay, who sits on the council's executive board and is in charge of regeneration for the borough, said: "I am opposed to the principle of faith schools.

"We should be promoting integration and building up the number of community schools we have, not going the other way.

"I can see the arguments about equality and fairness of choice but I don't like faith schools at all."

Coun Taylor unveiled plans last week to bring an existing Muslim private girls' school under local education authority control. It would be the first time there has been a Muslim girls' school under LEA control in Lancashire, and Coun Taylor said it would provide the Asian community with the same choices white families have of being able to either send their child to a community or faith school.

It was also revealed that 'segregation' was blighting existing high schools, and plans were being drawn up to twin schools so there was more mixing of different ethnic groups.

When asked if he was aware of opposition within the Labour group, Coun Taylor said: "I accept that some councillors have tough choices to make and that not everyone agrees with me but many of them went to faith schools themselves."

However, the Conservatives have thrown their weight behind the proposals, even though they have expressed concern at the council committing to something before the full cost is known.

Coun Colin Rigby, leader of the Conservatives, said: "We have taken a group decision to support the proposals. We have some concerns about how it will all be financed."

Coun Paul Browne, leader of the Lib Dems, said his party would be opposing the plans.

If the proposals are approved tonight, a second round of consultation will begin while work will also start on bringing Tauheedul School, an existing private girls' Muslim school, into the LEA by 2006.