Mr Milburn will be billed for Benjamin's jabs
A family friend who used to borrow punk records from Health Secretary Alan Milburn is to invoice him for the cost of giving her son separate measles, mumps and rubella jabs.
Michelle McFadden-Jewers, 36, says she is so angry that she has had to pay to have the alternative to the combined MMR injection she plans to cause "as much embarrassment as possible" to the government.
She told BBC News Online she intends to send the £80 bill for each jab her 14-month old son Benjamin is given to Mr Milburn, the man she used to borrow albums from when he was a neighbour.
Mrs McFadden-Jewers' father Alec McFadden, a trade union activist and past Socialist Labour Party candidate, was best man at Mr Milburn's first wedding.
Parental pressure
She hopes her efforts will encourage other parents to make a similar protest in a bid to get the government to instigate an independent inquiry into the safety of the MMR jab.
Mrs McFadden-Jewers' appeal comes as an ICM opinion poll, conducted for The Guardian showed that 75% of parents asked wanted the government to provide free separate measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations.
It also follows a plan for GPs to summons parents opposed to the MMR jab for a dressing down about the health risks of not having it.
Benjamin was given a rubella jab on Sunday at a private clinic in Mr Milburn's Darlington constituency.
He will receive the measles injection in 12 weeks, followed by mumps in six months time. Each jab costs £80.
Benjamin's immunity will then be checked in a blood test for antibodies, costing £100, resulting in a possible total bill of £340.
Labour-voter Mrs McFadden-Jewers, whose husband David, 36, she says agrees with her philosophy, insisted: "I am sending Mr Milburn the bill - I want the money back.
"The government should give people the choice not to have MMR. I know two children that have been affected by it.
"You feel blackmailed into having MMR. You are made to feel like a terrible mother if you don't let your children have it," she said, adding that doctors and health visitors had pressed her to get Benjamin immunised.
"You only have a choice if you can pay for the single jabs. That is creating a two-tier system of those who can afford to pay and those who can't."
She fears that more youngsters will contract the diseases because either their parents are too frightened to let them have MMR or too poor to pay for separate jabs.
Born perfect
Mrs McFadden-Jewers' elder son Jacob, seven, was given the triple vaccine.
"He was poorly with it," she said. "He had fluey symptoms and he had a golf ball-like lump in his leg which didn't go away for a year.
She stressed: "I'm 36. I went through nine months of hell to have my baby. I was in hospital every week with different problems and had all the tests for spina bifida and Downs Syndrome.
"When Benjamin was born he was perfect. I couldn't live with myself if I gave my son MMR and he was disabled for the rest of his life."
Friendly advice
Mrs McFadden-Jewers said it was an "insult" to parents to suggest that they might forget to get all three injections, adding that babies have to receive Diphtheria, Polio and Tetanus within 16 weeks of birth.
"It is very patronising. It is like saying the general public are complete idiots. We don't live in a world where people are little drones."
The local government officer who works for Newcastle social services said she "felt a little bit bad" that she would be invoicing an old family friend.
"He has probably not thought about me for years.
"My dad was his best man at his wedding."
Her Dad Alec, 55, who now lives on the Wirral, said: "Alan used to babysit for Michelle. He's been a friend for 20 years."
But on the MMR issue, he added: "When the public have lost confidence in the government over MMR, which they have, it can't be obstinate and not listen."
The government insists that there is no connection between the MMR jab and autism. It has launched a huge campaign to persuade parents of the dangers of not having the jab.