Minister insists beliefs will not affect Government role
The Education Secretary has insisted that her Roman Catholic beliefs would not prevent her accepting other government jobs.
Confirming she received “spiritual support” from controversial Catholic movement Opus Dei, Ruth Kelly told BBC One’s Breakfast with Frost programme that her beliefs on issues such as contraception and abortion would not stop her serving as a health or international development minister.
Stressing her commitment to Cabinet collective responsibility, the new Education Secretary stressed that despite any personal beliefs, she took responsibility for Government policy in other areas.
“While there are issues of conscience which of course I’ll express my view on in the lobby in usual way – because most of these are questions of free votes – as a member of the Government I have responsibility for those policies and for implementing them in my own department,” she said.
Asked to comment on whether she is a member of Opus Dei, which adheres strictly to Catholic teachings, Ms Kelly said: “I do have spiritual support from Opus Dei and that is right.”
“But those are private spiritual matters and I’m sure you’ll respect that politicians are entitled to a private life.”
During the interview, the new Education Secretary also indicated that teachers could get more powers to remove rowdy pupils from classes.
Ms Kelly – appointed last month in a re-shuffle prompted by David Blunkett’s resignation – said the Government had made “huge progress” in tackling severely disruptive children, but acknowledged that parents remained concerned about lower level discipline problems.
The Conservatives have made improving school discipline a key plank of their policy in the run-up to the next general election.
