A Labour MP has claimed he felt under extreme pressure to keep 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 the party's leader to act.

It follows demands by a women's rights organisation last month for Jeremy Corbyn 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 him 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''.

Gavin Shuker told BBC Newsnight he felt "extremely pressured to be silent on the things I know to be true" adding that "in many ways it represents the culture of our party that we need to change".

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. Gavin Shuker MP

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."