Come clean on MMR, Labour MP tells Blair
By Benedict Brogan, Political Correspondent
(Filed: 22/12/2001)

TONY BLAIR should show leadership by declaring whether he has allowed his baby son Leo to receive the MMR vaccine, one of Labour's most distinguished scientific experts said yesterday.

Dr Ian Gibson, the MP who chairs the Commons science and technology select committee, said the Prime Minister and his colleagues should set an example by coming clean about their personal response to a flagship Government policy.

He said Ministers should be honest with the public about their family's attitude to MMR, which some people claim may cause autism and bowel disease in children.

Mr Blair faced demands in the Commons on Wednesday to say how he and his wife Cherie chose to have their son inoculated, amid suspicions at Westminster that their reluctance to answer suggests they have rejected MMR.

Most Ministers have taken their lead from Mr Blair and refused to say whether they are following government advice by giving their children the combined vaccine for mumps, measles and rubella.

But the "don't tell" policy was under strain last night after Dr Gibson's intervention. An academic biologist who also chairs the all-party cancer group at Westminster, he does not have a record as a Labour troublemaker.

His call for ministerial honesty and leadership will be embarrassing for Mr Blair and Alan Milburn, the Health Secretary. The Government has promoted the merits of MMR and has warned that children are being put at risk because parents are listening to "scare stories" and failing to inoculate them.

Downing Street's refusal to confirm that 18-month-old Leo had been inoculated with MMR has led to speculation that Mrs Blair, who has a keen interest in alternative therapies, may have opted for three separate jabs - which can cost up to £300.

Dr Gibson told BBC radio's Today programme that there was a "difficult dividing line" about the lives of public figures and their families. Some things should be kept private, he said. "But I think people like their leaders to set an example.

"Whether the issue was nuclear power, mobile telephone masts, or MMR. When the public are confused and not sure, and as an MP I get questions about the safety of MMR, the question frankly is about risk.

"The public do understand about risk. There is risk associated with any kind of medical treatment. And people need to know what the risk is. The best criteria for seeing if it's a risk is when leading figures, be they footballers or leading politicians, come clean.

"It's a social thing, they are talking to the nation, they are setting a message."

He was contradicted by George Kassianos, an immunisation expert from the Royal College of General Practitioners.

"Whatever we say and do is between the patient and the family doctor and it has to stay like that otherwise patients will lose confidence in the NHS," he said.

Mr Blair set the tone for the Government on Wednesday when he rejected calls to say whether he and his wife have chosen MMR for Leo. Mr Blair believes that he would be accused of using his children to promote Government policy.

His aides fear a similar reaction to the one that greeted John Gummer, the Tory agriculture minister in the 1990s, who was photographed feeding his daughter a beefburger during the BSE crisis.

No scientific evidence has been produced to prove a link between MMR and autism. The vaccine is strongly backed by the Health Department and the World Health Organisation.