Published: 3:28 PM June 19, 2019 Updated: 6:05 PM September 17, 2020

An international moving firm has said it has 'never seen so many people leave because of the political climate' after learning that half of their customers leaving the UK in the past two years did so because of Brexit.

A customer survey conducted by John Mason International Movers found that there has been a 22% rise in respondents looking to leave the UK since the referendum, with around 5,000 people a year leaving because of Brexit.

Enough people have left Britain since the referendum to fill a town the size of Newmarket or Aberyswyth, said the company.

The movers, who relocate over 10,000 people annually, found that 53% of their customers since the referendum made the move because of Brexit, with some branding it as "our relegation to a second class nation," and "an embarrassment".

Just 3% of those surveyed felt that Brexit had had a positive impact, and made them think twice about leaving.

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John Mason International director Simon Hood said that the company had been prompted to conduct the survey when they saw an increase in business.

"We never anticipated we'd end up with figures like this, which suggest that more than half of the people we've helped start a new life in a new country since the EU referendum did so because of Brexit," he said.

He added that in the company's century-long history, "we've never seen so many people leave because of the political climate".

The exodus may not just be limited to private citizens, either, he said. The Guardian has previously reported that nearly a third of UK businesses are planning to move part of their operations or have already done so.