CAMPAIGNERS fighting to save a village school from closure hope comments by the Prime Minster will help them fight their cause.

The Hurworth School supporters have jumped on comments Tony Blair made in the national Press this week.

Darlington Borough Council plans to close Hurworth and nearby Eastbourne Comprehensive and merge them into a new £25m academy.

But parents, teachers and governors in Hurworth are instead pursuing foundation status to free them from council control.

Mr Blair told The Guardian newspaper that city academies and foundation schools were a means to improve standards.

He said: "The issue is the quality of teaching and the standards in the schools, but if schools, developing these freedoms, can better raise standards, they should be free to do it.

"The point is no one is forcing them to do this. If the teachers and parents and governors say 'we don't want anything to do with it', they don't have to do it."

A spokesman from Save Hurworth and Rural Education (Share) said Mr Blair's comments put him in diametric opposition to Darlington MP Alan Milburn.

Chairman of governors, Sam Jameson, said: "We take great heart from Mr Blair's comments in the Guardian.

"It would appear that Darlington Borough Council is putting forward an expression of interest for an academy involving Hurworth in direct opposition to the publicly stated view of the Prime Minister."

Eamonn Farrar, chief executive at Hurworth School, said: "I'm sure that the council will want to review its proposal in light of Mr Blair's comments."

Hurworth headteacher, Dean Judson, said: "I have always believed in Mr Blair's vision for giving parents, staff and governors of high-performing schools the right to choose their own destiny. That's how to raise standards. Closing Hurworth would run completely counter to this goal."

But a spokeswoman for Darlington council said: "This comment has been taken out of context.

"The Prime Minister was talking about the need for schools to raise standards, which is the aim of the academy proposal.

"Formal consultation has not started so we have no evidence that all parents, teachers and governors at Hurworth and Eastbourne Schools are opposed to the academy proposal.

"In fact we are aware of considerable support for the plan."