The health secretary has defended his pursuit of providing choice in the public services.

John Reid was speaking at a fringe meeting at the Labour conference on Tuesday and hit out at critics who accuse him of subverting traditional party values.

The Blairite Cabinet minister argued that reforms such as creating foundation hospitals and offering a range of NHS services within individual areas was at one with the principles of social democracy.

Reid said that he wanted to "dispel the myths" surrounding choice, which he called the principle of "empowering people so that people in disadvantage can take themselves out of disadvantaged positions".

He claimed that the idea was "neither infinite nor absolute" but rather "constrained by capacity and the quality of care".

However Labour was able to offer more alternatives for the delivery of services because of increased investment in hospitals and schools, Reid said.

The left should embrace the concept, rather than resist it, the health secretary claimed.

"I hear people saying this is at odds with the founding values of the Labour movement," he said.

"When I hear that I wonder how much reading people have done on the values of the Labour movement."

"It is not only an option to be able to develop empowerment, options and choice," he added.

"It is an absolutely essential prerequisite if we want to treat inequalities."

Otherwise "people in growing affluence will leave" he argued, leaving services such as the NHS for the poor alone.

Reid insisted that the entire Cabinet backed his vision, despite regular reports that the chancellor wants to curb increasing publicly funded private sector provision and the use of markets.