Education minister Ed Balls has promised to visit Dover and Deal amid the controversy over his comments last month to close "failing schools".

Three schools in Dover and Deal were on his list, Astor College for the Arts, Archers Court Maths and Computing College, both in Dover, and Castle Community College in Deal.

Dover MP Gwyn Prosser has already praised the efforts being made by non-grammar schools in the constituency to raise standards, and criticised Mr Balls for suggesting he would shut some of them down.

"There are no failing schools in my patch but everyone connected to the three that were listed shared my anger about the way the matter was handled and I have complained to ministers," said Mr Prosser.

"In Parliament I raised the issue on the floor of the House and pressed for a debate and this week I confronted the Secretary of State further at a crowded meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party and asked him to join me in a visit my local schools to explain his actions and consider making an apology.

"He said that he regretted the way that the announcement had been reported but went on to say that Labour’s progressive mission is, and has always been, to end cycles of disadvantage so that poverty does not pass from one generation to the next.

"Everybody should have the opportunity, he said, to fulfil their potential regardless of their background or the income of their parents.

"I think most people would sign up to that.

"He finished by agreeing to a ministerial visit to Dover and Deal but as to an apology – we’ll just have to wait and see."