Labour is facing a legal challenge designed to force it to establish constituency parties in Northern Ireland.

The party is coming under pressure from Belfast-based activist Andy McGivern who has instructed his solicitor to take the case to the courts.

Last year McGivern won his battle to be allowed to join Labour but now wants official local groups to be established so that he can participate fully in internal party democracy.

He is fighting the case on the grounds of race discrimination, as he did when successfully persuading the party's ruling national executive to admit him as the first Ulster member.

Having overturned the 79-year ban, which the Labour had operated because of its links to the nationalist SDLP, McGivern is now calling for constituency parties to be set up as only through these can ordinary members submit motions to internal conferences and decide on them as a delegate.

He insisted he was using the courts only as a last resort. "My solicitors recently wrote to Labour requesting the setting up of a constituency party and gave them a deadline of seven days to reply," he said.

"They responded about 10 days afterwards, saying Labour's NEC would consider it. However the proposal was not even raised at the latest NEC meeting on Monday.

"I therefore have no option but to pursue this through the courts. As a Labour member, it is not something I want to do. However all we are asking for is a basic right - the right for Labour members in Northern Ireland to be treated on the same terms as their colleagues in England, Wales and Scotland.

"That means being allowed to set up constituency Labour parties which can send delegates to the annual conference and participate fully in the political life of this country."

The move has been backed by McGivern's own GMB trade union and Labour MPs including Andrew MacKinlay and Northern Ireland-born Kate Hoey.