A women’s rights group pledged to take fundraising merchandise off the shelves yesterday if allegations that campaigning T-shirts were made in sweatshops are true.

The Fawcett Society promised supporters it was investigating whether its “This is What a Feminist Looks Like” shirts were made by women paid just 62p an hour.

The Mail on Sunday claimed that the garments — recently sported by Labour leader Ed Miliband among others — had been produced by women living 16 to a room in a Mauritian factory.

Fawcett Society deputy chief executive Eva Neitzert said: “We have been very disappointed to hear the allegations that conditions in the Mauritius factory may not adhere to the ethical standards that we, as the Fawcett Society, would require of any product that bears our name.”

The T-shirts were a collaboration between the charity, fashion magazine Elle and high-street retailer Whistles in a bid to promote women’s rights.

They are on sale for £45 each, with the profits going to the Fawcett Society.

“If any concrete and verifiable evidence of mistreatment of the garment producers emerges, we will require Whistles to withdraw the range with immediate effect and donate part of the profits to an ethical trading campaigning body,” Ms Neitzert added.

The Mail said that workers at the Compagnie Mauricienne de Textile (CMT) factory earned the equivalent of £120 a month — a quarter of Mauritius’s average salary.

International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers Union president Fayzal Ally Beegun told the Mail on Sunday: “The workers in this factory are treated very poorly and the fact that politicians in England are making a statement using these sweatshop T-shirts is appalling.”

Both the Fawcett Society and Whistles claimed not to have known of the conditions at CMT factories.