Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn last night suggested Britain should take in similar numbers of refugees to the ‘hundreds of thousands’ entering Germany – and said the Government should admit unaccompanied children immediately.

His call came on a mud-spattered tour of two migrant camps in Dunkirk and Calais, as he claimed that most people in Britain would happily accept more immigrants.

‘The Government is taking in 25,000 over five years... it’s got to be much more than that, that’s a tiny figure,’ he declared as he struggled to push through the throng of people at Dunkirk’s Grande-Synthe camp, which houses 3,000 migrants.

Corbyn's guide... the Calais protester: Alongside Corbyn was Maddie Harris, who denies being an anarchist or part of the Calais Migrant Solidarity Campaign - but was spotted on their demo last month

Mr Corbyn was led through the camp by Maddie Harris, an activist from Bristol who has spent four months living there and has been pictured at an anarchist protests in Calais supporting migrants’ rights.

Criticising British policy, Mr Corbyn said: ‘Germany is taking several hundred thousand people and I think we should have been part of the European programme from the very beginning in 2013. We are a big country but we can’t solve the problem on our own – no one country can. Together we have got to do a lot better than this. This is a disgrace. It’s disgraceful this camp.’

The conditions are truly grim in the camp, a rat-infested quagmire with ankle-deep mud fringed by open sewers. Families huddle in thin plastic tents with no protection from the cold.

‘We have to do more,’ declared Mr Corbyn. ‘As a matter of urgency, David Cameron should act to give refuge to unaccompanied refugee children now in Europe – as we did with Jewish Kindertransport children escaping from Nazi tyranny in the 1930s.’

Last night there were reports that Mr Cameron was considering accepting unaccompanied refugee children into Britain, but The Mail on Sunday understands it would likely amount to hundreds, not thousands of young people, and they would probably come from camps in Syria rather than in France.

Asked if people in Britain believed too many migrants had already been admitted, Mr Corbyn said: ‘If you talk to people at a human level about fellow human beings’ real suffering, you get a different response... Not everyone is that cold-hearted.’

Ms Harris, 30, said she was an ‘independent volunteer’, not an anarchist or a member of the Calais Migrant Solidarity Campaign, although she admitted being photographed holding a banner at a New Year’s Eve demo they organised.

Ms Harris, 30, admitted being photographed holding a banner at a New Year’s Eve demo the Calais Migrant Solidarity Campaign organised

‘I was supporting the cause, not the group,’ she said. ‘People are being detained illegally and I was protesting against that. There are no anarchists here stirring up trouble or violence. We are not encouraging people to come to these camps.

‘I am here for humanitarian reasons, not political ones.’

While Mr Corbyn received a largely warm reception, many of those applauding him clearly had no idea who he was.

One man at the Dunkirk camp who spoke to Mr Corbyn was British citizen Saman Sharif, 29, who arrived in Britain from Iraq 12 years ago, but whose wife, 29, and their four children – including five-month-old son Lawnad – are stranded in the camp.

‘I come here every weekend from Birmingham,’ said factory worker Mr Sharif. ‘I have a British passport, but it makes no difference, they are caught in the red tape. I asked Mr Corbyn to help reunite me with my family, and he has said he will do what he can about my case.’

Former Defence Secretary Liam Fox was critical of Mr Corbyn’s proposal, telling The Mail on Sunday: ‘It sounds like a knee-jerk reaction to a media visit which, like everything else from Corbyn, is ill thought-out.’