Blair hints that Leo had MMR jab as vaccine rebellion mounts
By Lorraine Fraser, Medical Correspondent
(Filed: 23/12/2001)

TONY BLAIR last night dropped a heavy hint that his baby son Leo had been given the controversial MMR vaccine, saying that it was "offensive beyond belief" to suggest that he would advise others to have the inoculation if he thought it too dangerous for his own child.

His intervention was made as The Telegraph discovered evidence that Downing Street's refusal to say if Leo, aged 18 months, had been treated has undermined public confidence in the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.

Clinics offering alternatives to MMR told The Telegraph that they had been "flooded" with inquiries from anxious parents since Mr and Mrs Blair declined to answer questions on Leo.

One London-based company, Direct 2000, said that since the controversy began a fortnight ago the business had received 1,500 more calls than it would normally expect, an increase of 30 per cent.

All were from parents asking about separate measles mumps and rubella vaccinations. Worries about the vaccine followed claims, rejected by the Government, that it could cause autism and bowel disease in children.

Mr Blair decided to issue a written statement after two newspapers reported that a relative of Cherie Blair suffers from autism. He called the reports a "horrible and unjustified" intrusion into the family's privacy. Crucial facts were wrong, he said, but could not be corrected without further compromising the family's privacy.

"The suggestion that the Government is advising parents to have the MMR jab while we are deliberately refraining from giving our child the treatment because we know it is dangerous is offensive beyond belief," he said.

"For the record, Cherie and I both entirely support the advice, as we have consistently said. It is not true that we believe the MMR vaccine to be dangerous or believe that it is better to have separate injections, as has been maliciously suggested in the press, or believe that it is linked to autism."

Mr Blair said that if he answered the question directly it would set a precedent and lead to his being questioned on whether his family abided by the recommendations made in 18 other Department of Health campaigns, ranging from encouraging breast-feeding to curbing alcohol abuse.

"Once we comment on one it is hard to see how we can justify not commenting on them all," he said. Mr Blair's statement failed to satisfy campaigners for vaccine-damaged children last night.

Jackie Fletcher, of the parents' group Jabs, said: "Mr Blair is still not telling us what his own decision has been. He is leader of the Government and we have a right to know.

"I fully understand the Blairs' position but there is a case to be made on MMR, but many children whose parents think they have been affected have not even been investigated by any department of the Government.

This is also fundamentally about parental choice. Parents who are concerned should be able to request that their child has the three vaccinations separately, but his Government is specifically denying them this option."

The risk to the Prime Minister now is that his refusal will be seen to have undermined his own Government's campaign to encourage MMR. The surge in inquiries to clinics offering separate injections appeared to confirm that the public had been alarmed by the row.

A spokesman for Direct 2000, Kathryn Dunford, said: "There have been times when we have all had to man the phones to cope. This was not just from people in London but from everywhere in the country."

Peter Mansfield, a family doctor who runs a call centre for Desumo, a company set up by parents in Worcester to supply separate jabs, and for his own Good Healthkeeping clinics in Lincolnshire, said that he, too, had experienced an increased number of calls.

Earlier this year public health officials in Worcestershire tried unsuccessfully to get Dr Mansfield struck off the medical register for prescribing the single jabs. Publicity over the case brought 1,100 inquiries over a two-month period, he said, but calls were now coming in even more quickly.

"We have had days when it has gone ballistic with hundreds of calls - so many we couldn't keep up," he said.

"The last one was when the newspapers reported that Mr Blair has refused to answer a question about Leo and MMR from Julie Kirkbride [the Conservative MP] in the House of Commons."

Dr Mansfield, however, expressed some sympathy with Mr Blair's position. "His stance is very wise, although he is being hypocritical," he said. "If he doesn't want people to construe anything from his silences he has always to stay silent."

Dr Mansfield added: "I don't think there is any prospect of this issue going away." Pressure on Mr Blair to reassure worried parents by confirming that his youngest child has had the MMR inoculation was increasing throughout last week.

On Friday, Ian Gibson, a leading Labour MP who chairs the Commons science and technology committee said Mr Blair should show leadership by being open on the issue.

Mr Blair told the House on Wednesday that he supported his Government's stance on the three-in-one MMR jab. Downing Street's silence, however, has led to speculation that his wife, Cherie, who is well known to have an interest in alternative medicine, has insisted her son be vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella in separate inoculations.

MMR, which was launched in the UK in 1988 and is recommended for babies at 12-18 months and children aged four, is backed by leading medical organisations including the World Health Organisation.

Research by Dr Andrew Wakefield, a gastroenterologist, suggested that the combined vaccine could be causing bowel disease and autism in some children.

Parents have to pay up to £300 for the vaccinations to be given singly at a private clinic because the Department of Health refuses to allow them to be prescribed on the NHS.

The latest uproar follows an exclusive report in The Telegraph revealing that Dr Wakefield has been forced out of his job at the Royal Free and University College Medical School, in London, because of his research work.

It was also reported last night that Mrs Blair's sister, Lyndsey Booth, a former lawyer who became a homeopath, is an active campaigner for autistic children.

She was present at a meeting held at Downing Street in October by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Autism, which was attended by Dr Wakefield.