The prime minister has called for an end to the controversy surrounding the MMR vaccine.

Speaking yesterday, Tony Blair rejected any suggestion that the triple vaccine has any link with incidents of autism.

"If there was a [link], I can assure you that any government would be looking at it and trying to act on it," he said.

It follows allegations of a potential conflict of interest surrounding Dr Andrew Wakefield's 1998 paper which first sparked the scare.