A class action against GlaxoSmithKline, the largest manufacturer of the vaccine, Aventis Pasteur and Merck and Co. is being prepared by solicitors acting for parents who believe their children were harmed by the immunisation.

The prospects for civil action appear not to have been dented by the controversial High Court ruling last Friday, which resulted in two mothers being ordered to let their girls have the MMR jab. Their fathers want them to have the immunisation.

One of the mothers said another freedom had been 'eroded' after Mr Justice Sumner decided to go against her and another mother's wishes. In a statement released yesterday, the mother said: 'It's outrageous that in a free society a judge could make such a decision.

'This ruling makes it possible for officials to take my child and inject her with MMR jabs against my beliefs and my will - against the will of her mother, who lives with her, cares for her and looks after her. And for what?'

During the High Court hearing, Mr Justice Sumner said he was aware that the civil trial was pending next April, and added that his ruling should not be seen as a general approval of immunisation: 'It does not mean that, at another hearing, a different decision might not be reached.'