Birkenhead MP Frank Field has delivered a strong attack against "toe-rag" mums and dads whose children, he fears, could never have a job.

Mr Field, who has been appointed by Prime Minister David Cameron to lead a review of poverty and life chances, wants teenagers to sit a new GCSE on parenting to avoid ending up like TV lowlifes Vicky Pollard and Shameless Frank Gallagher.

He fears thousands of children are doomed to a life on benefits because their parents were "toe-rags."

Lessons in parenting and life skills should become part of the national curriculum, he insisted.

He said: "Our nation has fallen out of love with the art of being good parents and we have to get back to that. There's a large group of families - about 800,000 - who run chaotic lives. they are the neighbours from hell. We still haven't really taken the gloves off to them."

In his first report to Mr Cameron Mr Field warns that the PM would never crack Britain's welfare culture while the country produced poorly-educated children destined for failure from the day they were born. He suggested that a formal exam for 16-year-olds would help turn today's youth into "five-star parents" of the future.

Mr Field commented: "There's a genuine desire among young people to learn how to become good parents. Schools will want to teach this to boost their standing in the league tables. And there would be a wonderful knock-on effect for the rest of society."

And in a move designed to ensure good parenting for tots in the first months of their lives he is pressing for funding to be set aside for special lessons for mothers-to-be. Mr Field said he believed a child's life chances started to be determined from the day it was conceived.