A Labour MP has claimed he felt "extremely pressured to be silent" over concerns about the treatment of Muslim women within the party.

Gavin Shuker said he was "disappointed" with the way his claims about discrimination had been dealt with and called on Jeremy Corbyn to act.

It follows demands by a women's rights organisation last month for the Labour leader to hold an inquiry into allegations that female Muslims were being blocked from seeking office by male Labour councillors.

Muslim Women's Network UK (MWNUK) urged Mr Corbyn to investigate ''systematic misogyny displayed by significant numbers of Muslim male local councillors''.

The organisation claimed that the problem had been an ''open secret'' within Labour and accused the party of being ''complicit at the highest levels''.

Mr Shuker (Luton South) told BBC Newsnight: "In recent weeks, when I've spoken up about this issue, I felt extremely pressured to be silent on the things I know to be true. I think in many ways it represents the culture of our party that we need to change. When people come forward with legitimate concerns, they should be backed, not silenced."

"I've been disappointed with the response of the Labour Party ... I would like robust action from the leadership, both from the NEC and from the leader of the Labour Party to say if there are these practices, we will take the time to root them out. And more than that, when we've got people that are speaking up we won't seek to silence them, we will seek to listen to them and work with them. That's something that Jeremy can do.

"This is not just a moral imperative, it's an electoral imperative. We can't carry on treating the Muslim community as fools - we need to serve up great candidates at every single level. The community knows when there are abuses of power."

"I think we have a real problem getting capable young women from the Asian community getting selected and it's not good enough to say we are the most representative party, we've actually got to uphold our values and our selection procedures as well."

He added: "We as a party don't tackle membership packing nearly as hard as we should."

A Labour Party spokesman said: "The Labour Party has been at the forefront of the fight for women's equality. We have transformed the representation of women in politics and championed equality for women in the workplace.

"Any complaints or evidence of sexism, intimidation, received by the Labour Party are dealt with fairly, according to our procedures and the law."