DAVID Cameron today blamed segregation in Bradford for the spread of “poisonous far right and Islamist extremists” in the city.

In a major speech on extremism, the prime minister picked out Bradford and Oldham as among “the most segregated parts of our country”.

And he vowed to act to ensure families of different races and faiths mix better both in education and in neighbourhoods with social housing.

Speaking in Birmingham, Mr Cameron said he was not advocating the “bussing of children to different areas” and did not plan to “dismantle” faith schools.

But he said: “Areas of cities and towns like Bradford and Oldham continue to be some of the most segregated parts of our country.

“It's no coincidence that these are some of the places where community relations have historically been most tense, where poisonous far right and Islamist extremists desperately try to stoke tension and foster division.”

Mr Cameron said that, in some estates “segregation has actually increased or stayed deeply entrenched for decades”.

And he added: “The education that our young people receive is actually even more segregated than the neighbourhoods they live in."

The prime minister pointed out that all new faith academies and free schools must allocate half their places without reference to faith.

But he said: “We’ll go further to incentivise schools in our most divided areas to provide a shared future for our children, whether by sharing the same site and facilities, by more integrated teaching across sites or by supporting the creation of new integrated free schools in the most segregated areas.”

Mr Cameron said: “There is a danger in some of our communities that you can go your whole life and have little to do with people from other faiths and backgrounds.

"So, when groups like ISIL seek to rally our young people to their poisonous cause, it can offer them a sense of belonging that they can lack here at home."

The prime minister announced that parents will be able to cancel the passports of children they fear are being radicalised by Islamists, with immediate effect.

The new scheme would give families a further weapon to stop their offspring from travelling to Syria or Iraq to join so-called Islamic State.