Decision delayed on UK vaccination plan

The British Government is to delay a decision on a vaccination ‘‘firebreak’’ to try to control the spread of foot-and-mouth, Downing Street said today.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister said that a decision on an inoculating livestock was now unlikely to be reached before Monday.

Only yesterday, Downing Street said that they would decide within 48 hours whether to press ahead with a mass vaccination programme.

The disclosure came as the Archbishop of York led senior Church of England clergy in urging Tony Blair to put off the general election until the autumn because of the crisis.

The Rt Rev David Hope said there was a ‘‘very strong feeling’’ in the farming community that the election should not go ahead while many people would effectively be disenfranchised.

A spokesman for the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, also said ‘‘serious thought’’ should be given to the fact that movement was restricted in many parts of the country, but stopped short of calling for a delay.

Downing Street said Mr Blair would listen to all representations very carefully. Ultimately he would do what he believed to be the ‘‘right thing for the country’’.

The spokesman said that the decision on vaccination had been delayed as more time was needed to win round farmers - many of whom are deeply sceptical about the idea - if they were to go ahead.

‘‘If we go down this road we have to take the farmers with us. We have to win them over and we have to have their confidence that this is the right thing to do,’’ the spokesman said.

However he acknowledged that the decision to hold off comes amid some indications that the present policy of mass slaughter could be beginning to get hold of the epidemic.

Some farmers are urging the Government to give the slaughter policy more time to work before finally going for the inoculation option.

‘‘That is indeed an argument that is being mounted,’’ the spokesman said.

Agriculture Minister Nick Brown cancelled a visit to Cumbria in order to go through the issues surrounding a vaccination programme with officials and farmer leaders at the Ministry of Agriculture in London.

Tony Blair, meanwhile, was in Dumfries and Galloway meeting farmers before moving on to Northumbria.