Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has said that he “could palpably feel the vote was gone” for Remain before the EU Referendum result was in.

“Up until the last week before the EU Referendum, I was still confident and I think most people were who campaigned for Remain," he told talkRADIO.

“I was still confident that we would win. I thought it would be tight but I still thought we would win.

“I was predicting 55-45 and then in that last week, I had been doing meetings in Northern towns in particular and I thought in that week it had got away from us.

“I still thought we would win but then you could palpably feel the vote was gone.”

In the referendum in June 2016, Britons voted to leave the European Union with 52% of the vote.

'Grievances'

McDonnell added that people in rural Northern towns were “angry” and the EU Referendum was where every put their “grievances”.

“I thought whatever the result, we would manage it. I thought we would rise to the occasion,” he said.

“I thought if it was Remain then we would work on a way to bring the country back together again.

“I knew that would be difficult though because the meetings that I had in the North outside of the city areas, it was almost like a by-election where everyone’s grievances went into one vote.

“People were pretty angry in those towns.”

He added: “I thought if it went the other way, well we have a managed process now and I thought even this Government would be able to manage and negotiate a deal.

“That proved not to be the case.”