NEW Education Secretary Ruth Kelly has insisted that her Roman Catholic beliefs would not in future prevent her taking a job as a health minister.

It has been reported that she had ruled out a move to health or international development because of her opposition to abortion and contraception.

But in an interview with BBC1's Breakfast with Frost programme the Bolton West MP insisted that her religious beliefs would not be an obstacle to such a move.

"I am absolutely clear that as a member of this government I have collective responsibility for government policy so as a member of the Cabinet responsible for education, I also have responsibility for those policies developed in the health department and in the international development department and so forth, and I stand by those," she said.

"These are policies after all which are not only developed by this Labour government but are approved by Parliament.

"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."

Ms Kelly, a mother-of-four, also confirmed that she received "spiritual support" from the controversial Opus Dei group - an ultra conservative Roman Catholic organisation - but did not reveal whether she was actually a member.

"I, along with any other politician, am entitled to a degree of privacy in my private life. I do have a private spiritual life and I am completely open about that. People know that I am a Catholic and that I take it seriously," she said.

"I do have spiritual support from Opus Dei and I think that's right. These are private spiritual matters. Politicians are entitled to a private life."

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