First-cousin marriages are leading to the births of children in Keighley with severe disabilities, claims the town's MP.

Ann Cryer claimed deafness, blindness and multiple handicaps were among the consequences of Asians marrying close family members. She has called on the Asian community to stop the centuries-old tradition and find husbands and wives outside their family.

Mrs Cryer, pictured, spoke to the Keighley News yesterday following her appearance on a Newsnight report into genetic problems suffered by British Pakistanis. The BBC programme's research revealed that British Pakistanis were 13 times more likely to have children with genetic disorders than the white population. Newsnight said that more than half of British Pakistanis were married to first cousins, and in Bradford the figure could be as high as three out of four.

One Bradford Royal Infirmary paediatrician said he had seen more than 100 different genetic conditions affecting hundreds of children. The consultant, Dr Peter Corry, said that one of the the big factors was an increase in people marrying close to the family. He added: "That seems to be the case in Bradford, and we see Asian families in particular."

Mrs Cryer, who has previously spoken out against some Asian marriage practices, said that paediatricians in Airedale and Bradford had privately raised the first-cousin marriage problem with her. She said: "It's been of great concern across the area and no-one has dared put their head over the parapet."

She said that helped several local Asian families who suffered "enormous difficulties" because their children had physical or learning disabilities.

Mrs Cryer said: "The only solution is not to marry first cousins. If they carry on, they'll carry on having these genetic disorders."

Mrs Cryer stressed she would not be seeking a legal ban on first-cousin marriages, but called for the local Asian community to tackle the problem. She said: "At the moment no-one is talking about it. If we can get a debate going it will be wonderful."

Mohammed Ajaib, from Keighley Muslim Association, believed there was no truth in the theory that first-cousin marriages could lead to genetic abnormalities.

He said: "If it's a rare case then it can happen anywhere. People have been marrying their relatives like this for centuries and there's not been any problem."

Mr Ajaib, a long-time critic of Mrs Cryer's statements about Keighley's Asian community, accused the MP of trying to enforce her own views on people.

He said: "This is nothing to do with her. She doesn't have the right to interfere in the fundamentals of people's lives."

Khadim Hussain, a Bradford councillor representing central Keighley, welcomed any debate about whether first-cousin marriage led to abnormalities.

But he said the problem could not be widespread, even if there was an element of truth in the theory.

Cllr Hussain said: "The whole of the subcontinent would have been affected by now. First-cousin marriages have been going on for thousands of years.

"I married into close family and everyone in my family is all right. People marry within a clan in the subcontinent."