Health Minister and Battersea MP Jane Ellison has rejected calls to extend a vaccination programme for Meningitis B to children up to the age of 11.

Since September, the Government has been vaccinating all children born after July 1 but anyone who wants their older children vaccinated must pay £450.

In the House of Commons on Monday, MPs debated a petition signed by more than 820,000 people, started by the mother of Faye Burdett, a two-year-old who died after contracting Meningitis B, and who was not vaccinated.

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Mrs Ellison said: "I start by offering my condolences to the family of Faye Burdett, whose tragic death sparked such interest in the e-petition that led to this debate, and to all the other parents. Their powerful testimony on their personal family tragedies has led us and their Members of Parliament here today, and they have helped to stimulate interest in the petition, which has huge support, with more than 820,000 signatures."

The MP explained that the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation is conducting a preliminary study of the meningococcal strains carried by teenagers, which will inform research on the effect of a vaccination on that age group.

Mrs Ellison said: "As it stands, on the evidence and advice that I have received, I cannot support extending the men B vaccination programme to older children, but I emphasise that the JCVI keeps under review the evidence relating to all vaccination programmes, and I know that it will consider all the points made in this important debate. If the committee’s advice changes, I will consider it as a priority.

"I take this opportunity to underline and stress that vaccination is not a silver bullet. Even with a vaccination programme up to the age of 11, there would still be men B cases in under-11s, as we think that the vaccine covers only about three quarters of all men B strains and no vaccine is 100 per cent effective."

Mrs Ellison said the answers could not come quickly because scientific research took time and the last results were inconclusive.

Speaking before the debate, Faye's parents Neil and Jen Burdett told the Daily Mail: "’This whole thing about cost-effectiveness leaves me cold. How can you put a price on a child’s life?

"They’ll spend £9million on leaflets telling us to stay in Europe, but they won’t spend £9million on vaccines for our children."

Mrs Burdett said the disease was "every family's fear" and should not be allowed to happen to another family.