Under the plans, any state comprehensive or academy will be allowed to convert into a grammar school as long as they fulfill certain criteria.
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The controversial proposals will also allow other schools to introduce selection “in some circumstances”.
In her first speech in the United Kingdom since taking over from David Cameron, she will outline proposals for selective schools to take a certain quota of pupils from lower-income families.
At least 12 MPs from the government benches have today indicated their potential opposition to Theresa May’s policy of extending selection across England.
He said the government should ensure “that we make the best use of all the talent across the whole country and do not just talk about the few”.
Mr Fallon, whose Kent constituency got the first “new” grammar school for five decades previous year, said: “The aim is very clear; it’s to have more choice for parents in every part of the country”. That is simply unfair.
I believe that an increase in pupil segregation on the basis of academic selection would be at best a distraction from crucial reforms to raise standards and narrow the attainment gap, and at worse risks actively undermining six years of progressive education reform. For a start, anyone who wants to open a selective school will also have to open a non-selective school.
‘This is about being unapologetic for our belief in social mobility and making this country a true meritocracy – a country that works for everyone, ‘ she was due to say.
And my fear is that by dividing children at 11 and by creating grammars and secondary moderns – because that’s what we’ll do – then we won’t be able to achieve that ambition.
Reports last month suggested Mrs May was considering overturning Tony Blair’s ban on new grammar schools by sanctioning around 20 institutions in mainly working class areas in an effort to improve social mobility.
Labour have criticised the reforms and warned the expansion of grammar schools would “entrench inequality and disadvantage”.
The plans are particularly vulnerable in the upper chamber because they were not included in the 2015 Tory manifesto, denying Mrs May powers to overrule peers.
A Downing Street source said: “The admissions cap had the best of intentions but it has failed in its two key tests”. “The reality is that demand for school places only continues to grow, but too many children do not have access to a good or outstanding school”.
“But it has prevented new Catholic schools from opening, which are more successful, more popular and more ethnically diverse than other types of state school”.
The Prime Minister told a private meeting of Conservative MPs on Wednesday evening that she wanted to create a “21st century education system” with an “element of selection”.
The Conservative chair of the Education Select Committee, Neil Carmichael, has given a cautious response to Mrs May’s plans.
“In north Wiltshire however, I don’t really see a need for a grammar school, as the standard of schools is very high. There’s no evidence at all that that is the answer to numerous problems in our education system”.
Schools minister Nick Gibb has said that new grammar schools will “go beyond” the curriculum taught in non-selective state schools, offering their pupils a more “intensive academic education”.
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One in five places – and one in four at the Aston school – are reserved for pupils who are eligible for the “pupil premium”, extra funding given by the government for pupils eligible for free school meals or who have left local authority care.
