CHILDREN should be offered single vaccinations against measles, mumps and rubella because they have been put at risk by the controversy over the MMR jab, the Conservatives said today.

Shadow Health Secretary Dr Liam Fox said he still believed MMR was the safest option, but said the crisis in public confidence over the triple vaccine meant it was "reluctantly" time to offer parents the choice.

Dr Fox said his party had not abandoned its "bi-partisan" offer to the Government to support its position that MMR was the preferred option.

But he told BBC Breakfast News: "The important thing is that public confidence has fallen to a level, rightly or wrongly, where children are unnecessarily being put at risk. We can't stand back and do nothing at all."

Health officials denied that Prime Minister Tony Blair had ordered a review of the immunisation programme, and insisted MMR was safe.

But vaccination rates have fallen across Britain over fears that the jab could be linked to autism and a bowel disorder - leading to warnings of possible measles epidemics.

North Yorkshire consultant in public health medicine Phil Kirby warned yesterday that he expected to see cases of measles develop in the county because insufficient children have had MMR. He urged parents who have so far refused to let their children have the vaccine to reconsider.

The last confirmed case of measles in North Yorkshire was in 1998.

Results were today expected on 22 suspected cases of measles elsewhere in England, as fears grew of a large-scale outbreak of the disease in London and the North East.

Updated: 15:20 Wednesday, February 06, 2002