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Labour faces a credibility "meltdown" among working class voters unless it recognises the downsides of mass EU immigration, Michael Dugher has declared.

Gordon Brown's former special advisor - sacked by Jeremy Corbyn as Shadow Culture Secretary - launched a broadside at his party after the number of EU workers in Britain topped 2million.

Figures ahead of David Cameron 's Brussels talks showed the UK has 5million foreign-born workers , up a million in just five years. 2.1million were born in the EU.

Today Mr Dugher, who was raised in a pit village and managed Andy Burnham's failed leadership bid, said Old Labour voters fear that has "created a downward pressure on pay and conditions".

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He attacked Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, who said open borders would be "inevitable" by the end of this century .

(Image: PA)

And he took a thinly-veiled swipe at his leader, warning unskilled labour from eastern Europe was not discussed because it is "not something that nice, polite, left-wing people do at dinner parties in North London".

Mr Corbyn has represented Islington North since 1983.

Writing in the left-wing magazine Tribune, Mr Dugher declared: "My fear is that Labour has gone backwards.

"I publicly commended Jeremy Corbyn for going to Calais to highlight the refugee crisis and the need for EU-wide action.

"But the truth is Labour won’t get a fair hearing from the public on the need for humanitarian action on refugees if we don’t show that we’re prepared to mitigate against some of the negative consequences that large-scale unskilled EU migration has had on many of Britain’s traditional working class communities.

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"The disastrously inelegant interview by John McDonnell, where he talked about the inevitability of 'open borders', also risks a meltdown of whatever credibility we have."

Mr Dugher has become a fierce critic of his leader since he was sacked from his frontbench role last month .

He previously warned Mr Corbyn's biggest test would come in May, when London, councils and Wales and Scotland will all hold key elections.

"We’ve all seen the polls, we’ve all seen the personal ratings," he said. "The biggest test any leader can actually go through is a real election".

Tories open up 14-point lead over Labour Source: ComRes

The latest ComRes poll for the Sunday Mirror showed the Tories have opened up a 14-point lead over Labour - 3 points up on last month.

The Conservatives would attract 41% of voters compared to just 27% for Labour, according to the online poll of 2,018 people between February 10 and February 12.

And Mr Corbyn's personal favourability rating remains at minus 29, well below the minus 17 for David Cameron .

The only major politician liked more than disliked was Boris Jonson, who scored a net rating of 10.