No evidence of MMR link to autism says Blair

Tony Blair today dramatically stepped into the row over the MMR vaccine - insisting the triple jab is safe.

The Prime Minister called for an end to the controversy over the injection after it emerged that the scientist who first suggested it could trigger autism may have been biased.

Critics claim Dr Andrew Wakefield's original research is "fatally flawed" because he was being paid by lawyers to investigate whether the jab is dangerous.

Today the Prime Minister said he hoped the latest twist would finally end the debate over the vaccine's safety.

He told ITV News: "There's absolutely no evidence to support this link between MMR and autism. If there was, I can assure you that any Government would be looking at it and trying to act on it.

"I hope now that people see that the situation is somewhat different to what they were led to believe, they will have the triple jab because it is important to do it."

The Government is desperate to end the row over the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine amid mounting fears of a measles epidemic.

Millions of parents have shunned the jab since Dr Wakefield first voiced his concerns in

1998. Today health chiefs seized on revelations the scientist was being partly funded through lawyers representing parents who believed their children had been damaged by the injection, as further evidence that safety fears are unfounded.

The Government's Chief Medical Officer, Professor Sir Liam Donaldson, claimed Dr Wakefield's research was "poor science" which had led to a loss of confidence in a vaccine which had saved millions of children's lives. He added his voice to calls for an investigation by the General Medical Council into allegations Dr Wakefield's research linking the jab with autism in children was "fatally flawed" by a conflict of interest.

The editor of The Lancet said on Friday he would not have published the paper which sparked the controversy in 1998 had he known then that Dr Wakefield was being paid for a study looking for evidence to support legal action.

Today, Professor Donaldson said he had considered Dr Wakefield's work bad science throughout the controversy, but that the new allegations had revealed a "darker side" to the issue.

He called on Dr Wakefield to respond to a letter he sent two years ago asking a series of detailed questions about his research, which he has so far failed to answer. Dr Wakefield himself has welcomed the prospect of a GMC inquiry into his work at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, which has been blamed for a dramatic drop in the take-up of the vaccine in the UK.

"It has been proposed that my role in this matter should be investigated by the GMC," he said.

"I not only welcome this, I insist on it and I will be making contact with the GMC personally, in the forthcoming week."

Only two thirds of children in some parts of London have been given the MMR. The take-up is the lowest recorded in Britain.

About 70 per cent of London's toddlers have had the vaccine, compared with the World Health Organisation's 95 per cent target.