TONY Blair's flagship Education Bill may have passed its House of Commons test last night but the Prime Minister's authority has taken a significant battering.

To have to rely on the support of the Conservatives because of a rebellion by 51 of his own MPs is a clear embarrassment for the Prime Minister.

He will undoubtedly face tough questioning on the implications of the rebellion when he faces the Press today at his monthly Downing Street news conference.

And The Northern Echo will attempt to question him on how his radical plans for education fit with what is happening in part of his own constituency.

It seems to us that the Education Bill is fundamentally flawed. It is all about giving schools freedom from local authorities but it simply doesn't work when applied to the bitter wrangle which has developed over plans to merge Hurworth and Eastbourne schools into a £25m academy.

Hurworth governors, teachers and a parents' group are opposing the academy plan and instead want their successful village school - in Mr Blair's Sedgefield constituency - to have independent trust status. That should be music to the ears of the modernising Mr Blair.

But the very real problem is that the struggling secondary school down the road in Eastbourne would then be left out on a limb and Darlington council's plans to improve secondary education standards throughout the borough would be in tatters.

So far Mr Blair has been noticeably quiet on this thorny issue in his own backyard. Perhaps we will get the opportunity to find out what he thinks the answer is today.