EDUCATION Secretary Ruth Kelly will defend the Government's controversial plans for school reforms today amid continuing unease among Labour MPs.

Ms Kelly is expected to dismiss the "myth" that moves to give secondary schools greater independence will create more divisions and inequality in the education system.

She will tell a conference of headteachers in London that a proposed new breed of independent "trust schools" should work in collaboration with neighbouring schools. Trust schools will be backed by businesses, charities and faith groups and will enjoy much greater freedom to run their own affairs than most secondary schools now.

Some backbenchers have warned that trust schools are merely a revival of the old Tory policy for grant maintained (GM) schools.

Labour attacked GM schools as a divisive and unfair idea that set nearby schools in direct competition with each other.

Like GM schools, trust schools will be free from local authority control.

But a source at the Department for Education stressed last night that the GM comparison was a "myth".

"We want self-governing trust schools to work in partnership and collaboration with other schools," he said. Secondary schools which have specialist status and private sector backing have seen their results improve faster than other schools, he said.

Some Labour backbenchers have warned that the school reforms will encounter opposition when legislation comes before Parliament, expected early next year.

The Prime Minister has been trying to convince his party this week to back the reforms, which he has described as "pivotal" to his third term in office.