A NORTH-EAST mother is keeping up the pressure on health secretary Alan Milburn over the Government's policy on the MMR vaccine.

Michelle McFadden-Jewers, 36, plans to send a second bill to the Darlington MP after opting for individual measles, mumps and rubella jabs.

Despite Government assurances that the triple vaccine offered through the National Health Service is safe, Mrs McFadden-Jewers chose to pay for separate injections.

Her 16-month-old son, Benjamin, returns to Darlington's Woodlands Hospital for his second jab on May 12.

Mrs McFadden-Jewers, whose trade union activist father, Alec, 55, was Mr Milburn's best man, said although the Health Secretary failed to respond to the first bill, she intended to send another.

"I sent the last bill to Alan Milburn's office at the Department of Health and I have been told they have it, but they haven't bothered to respond," she said.

The mother-of-two, who lives in Gateshead, believes the Government should change its policy to provide separate injections, which cost a total of £350 privately.

She wants an independent inquiry into the safety of the MMR jab.

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "There is no question of us paying the bill as it is not our policy.

"We think the MMR vaccine is perfectly safe. The secretary of state is advised by the chief medical officer and that's his recommendation."