Naz Shah claims she retweeted comments about the Rotherham sex scandal by accident (Rex)

A Labour MP has claimed she shared a sick message telling Rotherham sex abuse victims to ‘shut up for sake of diversity’ by accident.

Naz Shah, a key ally of leader Jeremy Corbyn, retweeted and liked a post on the Twitter page by a parody account of left-wing writer Owen Jones.

The post read: “Those abused girls in Rotherham and elsewhere just need to shut their mouths. For the good of diversity.”

Ms Shah liked and retweeted the comments made by a parody account (Twitter)

Ms Shah, 43, later deleted the retweet and unliked the post and her spokesman claimed it was simply an “accident”.

He told The Sun: “This was a genuine accident eight days ago that was rectified within minutes. To suggest otherwise is absolute nonsense.

“Her record speaks for itself. Naz has been working for over 20 years on the issues of child abuse, violence against women and grooming, which is well documented.”

MOST POPULAR STORIES ON YAHOO UK:

Donald Trump says he will ‘close down the US government’ to build the Mexico wall

Government ‘tried to hide’ evidence UK will be more at risk of terror attacks after Brexit

The EU has ‘the upper hand’ on Brexit negotiations, says George Osborne

Hospital refuses donation from men fundraisers who wore ‘demeaning’ sexy nurse outfits

Prince Harry opens up on the moment Charles told him his mother Diana had been killed

However, critics condemned Ms Shah, with Equality and Human Rights Commission chief executive Rebecca Hilsenrath saying she “should know better”.

She said: “We need to keep the victims of these horrific crimes at the heart of the debate and always remember that diversity is not served by silence.”

Ms Shah, a British-born Muslim, was last year suspended by Labour for anti-semitic posts.

The Bradford West MP was suspended by Labour last year over anti-semitic comments (Rex)

In one post she compared Israeli policies to those of Hitler and wrote: “The Jews are rallying.”

She later apologised for her posts, blaming her anti-semitism on “ignorance”.

The Bradford West MP’s actions come a week after Labour frontbencher Sarah Champion was forced to resign for writing an article in The Sun about Pakistani sex gangs.

Ms Shah described the article as “irresponsible”.