JOHN MCDONNELL exclaimed today that “the real People’s Vote” would be a general election.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain during Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool, the shadow chancellor acknowledged that Labour should keep options on the Brexit deal “on the table,” which could include a public vote on the deal.

However, Mr McDonnell said that the option to remain in the European Union should not be allowed to be on the ballot.

"My understanding of what the discussion, certainly within my party has been all about, is respect the referendum but the deal that comes back, if it's not acceptable to parliament, [then] we should have a general election or keep the option of a People's Vote on the deal on the table.

“In that case, it will be about whether you accept the deal or not or whether you send people back to negotiate a proper deal.”

Mr McDonnell insisted that European nations are “up for a deal” and assured viewers that Labour can negotiate an exit from the EU on far better terms than the Tories.

In a separate interview on Sky News, he also hinted at the prospects of a general election, predicting that Labour may be coming to power within the next few months.

He said: “You negotiate on the basis of mutual respect and mutual interest.

“You don’t bang the table and threaten to walk away and certainly you don’t do what this government has done, which is to put up proposals which nobody could accept.

“"They can’t even get a deal through their own party, let alone through Parliament, so we are saying to them: ‘Just move over and let us get on with it as quickly as possible’.”

Mr McDonnell also warned members that Labour must respect the vote of the referendum.

“We argued for Remain, but we lost that vote so we have to respect that," he said.

“The country is still pretty split down the middle.

“My big worry is that, if we go for a referendum which is seen as just a simple rerun, we could divide the country again [and] we could get almost the same result.”