Ed Balls pledged to ensure that faith schools do not pursue covert selection at the Fabian fringe.

Schools secretary Ed Balls pledged to put faith schools under pressure to take a fairer social mix of pupils, responding to fears about 'covert selection by faith' at the Fabian fringe question time event on Sunday. (full transcript)

'We are not going to abolish 200 years of history. But many faith schools were set up specifically to give a decent education to the poor. They have a right to educate children in their faith, but they should not be less likely to educate poorer children of that faith', said Balls, agreeing with Anthony Giddens, who said that LSE research provided evidence that some faith schools could 'covert selection', being less representative of the social mix of their catchment areas

'We have a tough admissions code. It is right to say that faith schools – unlike academies, as it happens – currently take a lower number of pupils on free school meals than their catchment areas', said Balls.

Historian Linda Colley said she supported a 'fully secular' education system. Former Education Secretary David Blunkett said that, starting from a blank slate, he would not introduce faith-based schooling but the reality was that they were here to stay: 'any government which tried to abolish them would be voted out of office;.

'We have no policy to increase the number of faith schools in our country', said Balls. His focus would be on ensuring all schools promote fair admissions and community cohesion.

'There are 1.7 million children in 6500 faith schools. Some of them have been in existence before the state guaranteed an education. I am not going to abolish them. The question is not whether we should have one more faith school or not – whether we have 6500 faith schools or 6501. The question for me is are our existing faith schools promoting fair admissions and community cohesion'.

Balls and Blunkett both argued that there is a good case for trying to bring private Muslim faith schools. There are 116 schools – 6 in the maintained sector and 110 which are private.

'The question is not whether they exist or not but whether it is better that they are inside the state sector or outside. There are substantial advantages in the private Muslim schools which exist today being fully subject to the national curriculum and Ofsted inspection', said Balls.

Asked if he was concerned about homophobic bullying being more likely in faith schools, Balls said he was fully committed to eradicating bullying in all schools, whatever the grounds. Homophobic bullying could be a problem in any school. But there could be no question of the Catholic Church's beliefs about homosexuality being a reason to turn a blind eye to homophobic bullying, and he was talking to church leaders to ensure effective anti-bullying strategies would be a priority.