London (PTI): Britain's junior Minister for Environment Phil Woolas on Monday came under fire from Muslim groups for suggesting that marriages between first cousins are a factor in birth defects and inherited ailments. Woolas, the Labour MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth, said "Part of the risk, I am told by the health service, is first-cousin marriages. If you are supportive of the Asian community, then you have a duty to raise this issue."

The Muslim Public Affairs Committee, a campaign group, said the minister was demonising British Muslims.

An MPAC spokesman on Sunday accused the minister of "flirting with Islamaphobia" and said "(Prime Minister) Gordon Brown should either back him or sack him. We should be told what the Government thinks about this."

There was no comment either from Downing Street or the Department for the Environment.

However, the Labour chief whip Geoff Hoon came out in support of Woolas, saying it was right to discuss the issue of congenital defects and inter-marriages.

"It is important that we look at that in terms of scientific expertise and the extent to which it is actually causing problems," he said.

"I am confident that what he has said will have been said with sensitivity and with proper regard to muslims right across the United Kingdom."