John McDonnell has claimed shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry was being sarcastic when she said the party would probably vote in favour of the Government's Brexit deal in the autumn.

Ms Thornberry outraged pro-Remain Labour MPs by saying that Prime Minister Theresa May would return with such a "blah, blah, blah" agreement it would probably pass the six tests Labour has set for a Brexit agreement.

But Mr McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, told the BBC's Today programme that his colleague was responding in her "style".

Mr McDonnell said: "She responded in a personal way with a level of good old-fashioned British sarcasm and said exactly as she said, 'look, for goodness sake, you know what our position is'."

Insisting Labour had a consistent message on Brexit negotiations from leader Jeremy Corbyn and shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer, he added: "She was being sarcastic, in Emily's style.

"What was said very clearly - and you've got it from me and you had it from Keir Starmer and you'd get it from Jeremy as well as Emily - we have six tests. At the moment those tests are nowhere near being met."