The French Ambassador to the UK has said that since the EU referendum her country's citizens have suffered abuse in Britain and feel like foreigners where they once felt at home.

Sylvie Bermann said many of the 300,000 French nationals in the UK, including highly-skilled workers, are now reassessing their future in Britain.

It comes after the Home Office recently confirmed that hate crime spiked in the wake of the Brexit vote.

EU citizens in UK fear for jobs ahead of Brexit talks

One Spanish national working in tech, who has been in the country for the past 16 years, reported a "big feeling of being unwelcome".

"I have been called an immigrant when my country has 10 times more British immigrants," he said. "My country has to support 10 times more British immigrants in Spanish hospitals [than the NHS does]. On top of this, every time I go to a British hospital I meet Spanish nurses and doctors. British society has changed, and I don't feel part of it any more."

Having lined up a new and better-paid job back in Spain he relocated with his family this summer.

A Dutch national, who has been in Britain for more than a decade, said he had been subjected to "overt hostility from random people on the street" when speaking on the phone in his native language. "I have experienced the whole gamut of comments from ... `go back to where you came from' to threatening [and] abusive shouts," he said. "I have started two companies in the UK, both of which I am either closing or moving to the continent."

A German financial services worker reported similar incidents, saying that his children had been called Nazis by British youths. "We have been asked in aggressive tones whether we are speaking Polish several times when speaking German on public transport," he said. His company is now moving him and his family back to mainland Europe.