FRANK Field has warned the Labour leadership it is "walking in the opposite direction of the electorate" over the key issue of defence of the realm.

Interviewed by Dermot Murnaghan on Sky News this morning, the Birkenhead Labour MP and chairman of the works and pensions committee said Jeremy Corbyn's leadership is out of touch with the public.

He said the leadership needs to change its approach to national security and security of Britain's borders - or take a "walloping" at the next election.

Mr Field said: "The real problem we have is a new leadership which is in touch with lots of economic injustices.

"But on some of the big issues about the security of the realm - about defending our borders, about defending ourselves if need be - the Labour leadership is walking off in the opposite direction of where the voters are.

"And particularly swing Labour voters who didn't swing our way but swung decisively and gave the Government this unexpected election win last time.

"So there is clearly going to be this tension between quite properly hitting on the economic injustices, what do we do for people towards the bottom end, for which now there is growing sympathy among the electorate and with which we are in tune.

"But on the big issues sady which will decide the next election, which is about defending our borders and defending us as a nation, the Labour opposition is walking in the opposite direction.

"That clearly has to be sorted out before the next election if we're not going to get a walloping yet again."

Mr Field is also out of step with Jeremy Corbyn over Britain's response to the migrant crisis.

Writing in today's Sunday Telegraph, Mr Field and Conservative MP Nicholas Soames said Britain's "open-door immigration policy can't go on."

They believe the Prime Minister's case to remain in the EU will be seriously undermined unless he can get an effective deal on Britain's borders.

"Casting their eyes over the official projections, voters are likely to conclude that current levels of immigration, with many new arrivals coming from Eastern Europe, are completely unsustainable," they say in their column.

But their views came as Mr Corbyn called for Britain to join a pan-European effort to help ease the crisis as he visited camps in northern France to see the squalid conditions people are living in after fleeing war, poverty and persecution.

Mr Corbyn headed to the Grande-Synthe Camp, near Dunkirk, and "The Jungle" in Calais where more than 7,000 people are sleeping rough amid the mud, wet and cold.

As he met men, women and children who have fled from countries including Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, Mr Corbyn spoke of the "dreadful situation" they faced camped in the swamp-like conditions.

Surrounded by migrants and refugees, he said: "What I'm trying to achieve here is to understand the nature of the refugee crisis that's facing the whole of Europe.

"Ultimately we deal with the situation by dealing with the problem at its source, which are the wars and conflicts.

"Also, there are the human needs of people. We have got people here who have been here for months, if not longer than that, with no proper education, no access to doctors, no access to dentists, limited access to food - in very cold, very wet conditions.

"These conditions are a disgrace anywhere.

"We as human beings have to reach out to fellow human beings."