Some of the UK's most prestigious museums could be forced to cancel exhibitions if Britain crashes out of the EU without a deal, according to a batch of secret memos.

Major visitor attractions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Natural History Museum and the National Museums of Liverpool have expressed grave concerns about the costs of importing foreign artworks, falling tourist numbers and staffing shortages in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

A memo from the V&A to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport warned it could be compelled to close its doors temporarily as 44 per cent of customer service staff are EU nationals, and claimed that recruitment difficulties could hamper its plans for a new venue in Stratford.

The South Kensington-based attraction also said it could face up to £25m import costs on its loans for future exhibitions.

Papers from the Natural History Museum said it could be left £2m out of pocket through a loss of research funding, while an estimated 15 per cent decline in foreign tourists could cost £2.4m.

The Royal Museums Greenwich said a chaotic exit could mean shipment of art items are twice as costly in the short term, while the National Museums Liverpool warned that visa and customs issues could affect costs and timings for programmes.

The fears were laid bare in a freedom of information request by the People's Vote, which is calling for a referendum on Theresa May's Brexit deal, an aim backed by The Independent's Final Say campaign.

V&A director Tristram Hunt, a former Labour shadow cabinet member, told the Evening Standard: “Our ability to hold blockbuster exhibitions while having to pay import duties would be really problematic.

“Our ability to promote British soft power and influence through exhibitions like David Bowie Is and Pink Floyd would be seriously compromised.

“That’s bad for the London visitor economy. Four in five visitors to London come for the culture, and they are drawn by great museums and world class exhibitions. It is also potentially damaging for British influence abroad.”

Ahead of the referendum, senior Brexiteers warned that leaving the EU would not affect the creative industries.

In an open letter signed by top Tories such as Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Dominic Raab, Chris Grayling and Iain Duncan Smith, Vote Leave claimed that funding for cultural organisations would be unaffected by Brexit.

Labour former culture secretary Ben Bradshaw said: “The mess created by the Brexit elite in Westminster is now casting a long shadow over the future of our great museums.

Britain before Brexit: East of England Show all 13 1 /13 Britain before Brexit: East of England Britain before Brexit: East of England Norwich A couple and their dog relax by the Cathedral’s Labyrinth. I am charmed by the arrangement of their bodies and the shapes in which they are bonding. I realise the contemporary significance of the scene: the labyrinth - a complicated, irregular network of passages in which it is difficult to find one’s way - alongside the simplicity and closeness of human togetherness. In any complicated maze-like structure - Brexit included - it is important to remember that people and love and relationships are a vital part of the picture. Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain before Brexit: East of England Luton A construction worker assembles metal barriers for an art event. He looks towards an off-licence boasting to be pure 100% Moldovan. The lady inside isn’t returning the gaze, but stares inwards, onto the surface of her selfie, her narcissism being by far the most interesting thing in the shop window. Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain before Brexit: East of England Luton Walking back into town from Leagrave High Street I notice two graffitied propaganda messages: ‘Free Gaza’ and ‘Beverly is a black cow’. Here are but two voices, I think, in the crazy cacophony of contemporary British discourse, of the British tongue, fractured as it is into accents, splintered by slangs, torn, in this case, into the libertarian and abusive, one dehumanising, one for freedom. Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain before Brexit: East of England Cambridge University students hold a flash protest against the low pay of McDonald’s employees. They receive tuts, cheers, insults, whoops, raised eyebrows. People enter the restaurant in any case, unaware or uncaring that they have crossed a picket line. Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain before Brexit: East of England Norwich I went to look inside the Catholic Cathedral during Mass. I wanted to see the ritual and the practices, the people and their poses. There is a rich spectrum of visual dimensions to Catholic prayer that I first noticed when photographing in Poland. I’m attracted to its ambivalence: solemn and joyous; lonely in dialogue; desperate but determined; solitary yet complete. Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain before Brexit: East of England Great Yarmouth Posters from the town’s glory days surround the Winter Gardens as it rusts and becomes overgrown. It seems like an intentional act to rekindle nostalgia in the face of disrepair, to balance the present with representations of the past. Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain before Brexit: East of England Norwich At the back of the central market hang three representations of conflict, side-by-side, connected, making sense in relation to one another. Only one message can be worn at any one time, but together they narrate a powerful image of modern Britain: a unified group, a club, an undefeated nation facing an existential threat from its enemies. Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain before Brexit: East of England Luton People set up posts outside the train station, asking the town’s new arrivals for various things: religious missionaries seek attention and commitment; a person sleeping rough asks for food and spare change. I’m interested in how this affects the visual experience of arriving in Luton and what the religious and the homeless look like when viewed in the same frame. Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain before Brexit: East of England Cambridge A concoction of interests outside King’s College: a tourist desperately hailing lost members of the group; a shopper takes a break from the high street; a man sits to read; a woman meditates with her identity concealed. Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain before Brexit: East of England Luton A family emerges from the colours of Leagrave High Street. Twins sit and stare, identically, scrutinising me, like their father, perhaps. They are framed by rails of clothes. Mannequins exaggerate their life. Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain before Brexit: East of England Luton A pop-up employment workshop opens for business in the town centre. The sign is heavily loaded with the values of modern Britain: one must aspire to achieve, earn, and live; acquiring skills is akin to personal development; the prioritisation of the ‘local’. A lady carrying water on a scooter - unconventionally, comically, skilfully - appears as a strange detail of everyday life passing such lofty visions. Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain before Brexit: East of England Great Yarmouth The Britannia Monument celebrates Horatio Nelson’s life. An acrobat fell from the top and died in 1863. It remains a mystery, a travesty for some, that Britannia - the monument’s embodiment of the nation - has her back to the sea. These days she turns her back on a single one-man tent too, a home, a shelter erected on the shore. Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain before Brexit: East of England Great Yarmouth This was the last scene I saw in the town. I was leaving. I thought of how child’s play, in its innocence and vitality, continues amidst our hunched, phone-tapping adolescence and adulthood. Richard Morgan/The Independent

"Millions of people every year visit them to discover and enjoy some of the most extraordinary collections assembled on this planet.

"Now, because of the ideological and half-baked way Brexit has been pursued, our museums face new costs, staff shortages, and may even have to close to the public.

“Our museums are brilliant because they reflect an open outward-looking vision of the world where Britain has always thrived. This will close us off and turn our country inwards."

It comes after Brexit secretary Dominic Raab insisted that a deal would be agreed with the EU in the next three weeks as the talks enter the frantic final stages.