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Downing Street today rejected a call from a senior German politician for Britons to be given a chance to change their minds about Brexit.

Katarina Barley, the general secretary of Germany’s SPD party, became the most senior European figure to propose that the UK should hold a second referendum once the divorce terms are clear.

“When the referendum was held, nobody really knew what it would be about — not the British people, not even the political class,” she said.

“A lot of people wrongfully thought that Britain could get a deal like Switzerland or Norway without the inconveniences ... without free movement of labour. Now they know that this isn’t the case.”

Her position echoes that of Britain’s Liberal Democrats. However, No 10 flatly rejected the idea. A spokesman for Theresa May said: “The British people delivered a clear position. I would point you to the Prime Minister’s words when she triggered Article 50 and said ‘there is no going back’. That is our position.”

Only 21 per cent backed the idea of a second referendum in a YouGov survey last month, with 69 per cent thinking Brexit should go ahead as decided by the majority of voters last June — including more Remainers than supported a second poll.

Pollsters have searched in vain for signs of “voter remorse” among people who backed Brexit last June.

Lord Finkelstein, a Remain backer and close ally of ex-premier David Cameron, poured cold water on the idea that voters would change their minds in a second referendum.

“Many Remainers retain the hope that within the next couple of years, some people who voted to leave will abandon the idea,” he wrote in The Times, but added: “It doesn’t work like that."