LITTLE MIX claim record bosses ordered them to flirt with men to get ahead in the music industy.

The accusations from the quartet come after Simon Cowell confirmed the group have switched to RCA Records.

The move comes amid separate allegations the band fell out with his SYCO label over ‘their musical direction’ while making new album LM5.

Now the women have alleged they were advised how to behave to carve out chart success following their victory on The X Factor in 2011.

Jade Thirlwall claimed: ‘We went to a radio event in America, full of VIPs. Someone from the label said, “Go and flirt with all those important men.” I was like, “F*** off. Why have I got to go in and flirt to get my song on the radio?”’

The 25-year-old also alleged the singers were given no input into their own songs because they are women.

‘In the beginning, we were told we shouldn’t be involved in our music videos,’ she said. ‘One producer told us we shouldn’t be writing, we should just be given songs.

‘We realised we, as women, have to work ten times as hard, which is really bloody annoying cos we do write songs.’

As well as sexism, her bandmate Leigh-Anne Pinnock said she was left to battle racism during their stratospheric rise.

Making the claims in Asos magazine, the 27-year-old, said: ‘During the first couple of years of being in the band, I did feel invisible. I remember crying to my manager regularly. I just couldn’t seem to find my place and didn’t know why.

‘I didn’t feel like I had as many fans as the other girls. It was a strange feeling.

‘I never thought that it was because I was the darkest member of the band.

‘I felt overlooked, so I did everything to make myself more noticed, convinced I wasn’t good enough.’

Leigh-Anne reckons the group — completed by Perrie Edwards, 25, and Jesy Nelson, 27 — were always up against it from the get-go on Cowell’s TV show.

‘We weren’t even going to go through to live shows on The X Factor,’ she said. ‘They didn’t believe a girl band could do it, so you’re already putting women and girls down,’ she added. ‘We threw that idea out the window.’

A spokesman for Cowell’s record label last night told Metro the allegations ‘most likely’ referred to treatment from a separate US record label.

A spokesman for the group said the allegations referred to a radio tour in America when they were being looked after by a US record company.