Ruth Kelly today insisted that the Government’s planned school reforms would not lead to the return of selection by ability, as Cabinet opposition to the scheme continued to rumble.

The Education Secretary told MPs that children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds would be the chief beneficiaries of the new White Paper, which frees headteachers from a layer of local authority control allowing them to set budgets, hire staff and monitor admissions.

Ms Kelly was attempting to reassure Labour critics after an outburst yesterday from John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, who warned that the reforms risked a return to a two-tier education system.

The row has pitted Tony Blair's legacy agenda against the traditional opposition of Labour backbenchers to elitism in education.

More than 70 Labour MPs, including one former Education Secretary, have drawn up an alternative, less radical package of reforms. The rebellion raises the prospect that Tony Blair may have to rely on Conservative votes to push his flagship Education Bill through Parliament.

Ms Kelly, appearing before the cross-party House of Commons Education Committee, said that her Schools White Paper was designed to help pupils who are ill-served by the present system.

"What it is not about is reintroducing selection," she said. "We abolished once and for all any selection by ability in 1998 in primary legislation. There is no way in which that could be reintroduced through the current proposals."

Ms Kelly went on to say that there had been "misunderstandings" about provisions in the White Paper. The only changes in rules for school admissions, she said, would be to tighten up the system to ensure there was no attempt to operate selection by the back door.

"The Deputy Prime Minister and I all shared the same values and the same objectives," she said, "which is to raise standards for everyone in the system and particularly to help those children in the most disadvantaged areas who are being let down.

"I am completely convinced this will not create a two-tier system - in fact the reverse."

Critics of the proposals say that they will enhance the ability of middle-class parents to play the system, obtaining better education for their own children at the expense of less sophisticated families.

"I think as a result of the measures in the White Paper, we will end up with a system that will target more resources at disadvantaged areas," said Ms Kelly.

"It will give every child the individual support they need. It will promote a fairer and ultimately more competitive society."

Ms Kelly's assurances were designed to dampen the fierce backbench opposition to the White Paper which culminated in an interview Mr Prescott gave to a Sunday newspaper. He expressed misgivings over the proposals, saying that as an "11-plus failure" he feared that they raised the prospect of a return to the first and second-class education systems of the past.

Speaking ahead of today’s hearing, education committee chairman Barry Sheerman said that the Deputy Prime Minister’s intervention showed that unease about the proposals was not limited to Labour’s group of serial rebels.

"These aren’t the usual suspects in the Labour Party. Most of the people who have been saying very constructive and positive things in a spirit of trying to improve the White Paper are really not the usual suspects - even the Deputy Prime Minister."

Mr Sheerman added he believed there was "a lot of confusion" about what the recent White Paper had actually proposed and he hoped his committee could clear it up.

The new Tory leader David Cameron has held out the prospect of Conservative support for Mr Blair’s planned reforms. Conservative support has served to further the harden resistance from the Labour backbenches, and make the Prime Minister look increasingly isolated.

David Willetts, the Shadow Education Secretary, said today: "The crucial test is whether we think it’s delivering a better education for our children in the classroom. We will take a judgment about whether overall this Bill advances the cause of education reform or not."

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