Doctors' leaders accused Ken Livingstone yesterday of irreparably damaging the health of London's children by telling parents to avoid the MMR vaccination and choose single jabs against measles, mumps and rubella.
Ian Bogle, the chairman of the British Medical Association, told the mayor of London to apologise for blundering into a sensitive area that he did not understand.
"He will have done irreparable damage in London, that will take a long time to put right. It beggars belief that somebody in his position would blunder into what is obviously a sensitive issue," Dr Bogle said.
Representatives at the BMA's annual conference in Harrogate, Yorkshire, vented anger at Mr Livingstone's comment in a radio interview on Tuesday that the government was promoting the combined MMR vaccine to "save time and money" and was less concerned about effective protection.
In a debate on MMR, Tony Grewal, a GP from Hillingdon, west London, said the mayor would have to take personal blame for the deaths of unvaccinated children.
The row flared as the Department of Health published figures showing that the uptake of the MMR vaccination fell from 79% of two-year-olds getting the inoculation in September, to 73% in the first four months of this year.
In some parts of the capital, more than a third of parents were refusing the combined vaccine. In Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster, the uptake fell from 74% in September to 60% between January and April. Other low uptake areas included Bexley, Greenwich, Bromley, Croydon, east London and the City.
The World Health Organisation says 95% of children need to be vaccinated to ensure the entire population is protected.
Uptake of the MMR vaccine in England has been falling after research, disputed by government scientists, suggesting a link between the MMR vaccine, bowel disease and autism. The decline was particularly sharp in London where more than 100 children have been diagnosed with measles in the past six months.
Dr Grewal told the BMA conference: "Levels of uptake in London are already dangerously low. Measles maims and kills children. When London children are disabled or die, Mr Livingstone, as they surely will unless we change current trends, then you will share the blame. You stick to newts and the tube and leave our children's health to us."
The conference passed a resolution asking the BMA's board of science to examine compulsory immunisation.
