The Prime Minister today called for an end to the controversy over the triple vaccine MMR after it was claimed that the research which caused the original furore could be flawed.

Tony Blair spoke out after the Government’s Chief Medical Officer called for an investigation into the allegations about Dr Andrew Wakefield’s paper.

Dr Wakefield has been accused of failing to reveal that he had been given a grant of £55,000 by the Legal Services Commission to seek evidence to back a claim for compensation from parents who believe their children have been damaged by MMR.

This raised a conflict of interest, and cast doubt on Dr Wakefield’s 1998 paper in The Lancet, which started the controversy over MMR.

Mr Blair said he hoped people would now see there was no evidence of a link and opt for the MMR vaccine. 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 Legal Services Commission, formerly the Legal Aid Board, which committed £15 million backing the parents, now says it was a mistake. It was not "effective or appropriate" for the LSC to fund research, it said.

It has withdrawn support for the case, with £10 million already spent, on the grounds there is little chance that the parents can win, a decision that was last week challenged by the parents in a closed hearing before a judge. The judge’s verdict is awaited.

Of the £10 million, £4 million has gone on "disbursements", which include reports from experts such as Dr Wakefield. The LSC’s support began in 1996, two years before the Lancet paper appeared but after Dr Wakefield had first made his doubts about MMR known.

The General Medical Council is to review Dr Wakefield’s conduct, but some are not satisfied this will go far enough. The GMC would not be able to assess, for example, how reasonable it was of the LSC to continue supporting the case for years in the teeth of evidence that MMR was safe.

Professor Sir Liam Donaldson, Chief Medical Officer, said today that 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.

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