The Labour politician suggested her party should put out a pro-EU agenda in order to convince the public to support single market membership after Brexit.

She said: "Speaking purely for myself, I’m really off referenda – and partly because of the conduct of the EU referendum and also the division the Scottish independence referendum caused. What I would really like is a general election.

"We’ll have a different negotiating stance that says we’ll be pro-single market membership and customs union membership. 

"I would like us to put that forward in a general election and test our arguments with the public."

Speaking to BBC Daily Politics, Ms McGovern suggested Labour would adopt a new agenda to promote an EU-inspired "social model" to help "ordinary working people".

She continued: "I would like my party to put forward a strong, pro-European vision that says that the social model that we’ve seen in Europe – where you have markets that are constrained by rules and regulations – are good for ordinary working people."

It comes after opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn said the Labour party had yet to agree on whether it would be in favour of a second referendum.

Speaking to an audience at the European Socialist Party conference in Lisbon, Mr Corbyn said: "We've not made any decision on a second referendum.

"What we've said is that we would respect the result of the first referendum. If we were in government, we would immediately legislate to guarantee British residence to all European Union nationals that live and work in Britain, and the right to bring their families to Britain as well.

"We will negotiate the issue of relations with Europe on the basis of a free-trade relationship with Europe."

The comments come as Theresa May is trying to accelerate negotiations with Brussels to ensure the UK can move onto the second phase of talks by December 14 at the European Council summit.