Peter Mandelson has laughed off suggestions that a Labour government would take Britain back into the European Union.

The Labour peer, a former EU trade commissioner and close adviser to Keir Starmer, said “you’ve got to be joking” at the prospect of rejoining the 27-country bloc.

He said: “I cannot see the British people running towards [a referendum] for love nor money after what we went through during the last one.

“I really do not think that people are going to run towards a repeat of that experience.”

He made the comment during a British Chambers of Commerce event at Heathrow airport on Wednesday.

But Lord Mandelson, one of the architects of New Labour, told the “Global Britain” event how a potential Keir Starmer government would strengthen ties with Brussels without officially rejoining.

He said: “Reopen a negotiation? You’ve got to be joking.

“They [the EU] have got other priorities. They have other fish to fry now. And they’re not going to go through the back-and-forth, up-and-down, seesaw motion; or another protracted, probably hard fought over, and indecisive negotiation with Britain.

“So that’s simply answered.”

The peer, a former business secretary, is a co-founder and chair of the advisory outfit Global Counsel.

He referred to the possibility of a trade war with the United States as a “calamity”.

Donald Trump has said that if he is elected in November then he will impose 10% tariffs on all goods imported into the US.

Lord Mandelson insisted the measure could push the UK to “join with others to maximise the influence that we exercise” including in the EU and other G7 nations, while also suggesting that action was required to strengthen the World Trade Organization.

He said: “What a calamity [a trade war] would be, both for the US and Europe, and, I have to say, for the rest of the world.