BREXIT will trigger serious NHS staff shortages and cost the health service across the UK £265 million in re-hiring charges for EU doctors and nurses, the Liberal Democrats have said.

Nick Clegg, their Europe spokesman, said research showed that up to 26,500 NHS workers could leave the UK due to the decision to leave the European Union.

The number of EU nationals registering as nurses in the UK has fallen by 90 per cent since the Brexit vote, the former party leader explained, as he claimed the NHS would have to pay £1 million a week over the next five years as a result of a Tory immigration skills charge on employers.

"The Leave campaign promised that exiting the EU would free up £350 million a week for the NHS. It's long been clear this was a lie and now we know that Theresa May's choice of an extreme Brexit will in fact place yet more financial demands on a health service already under considerable strain.

"The NHS is heavily dependent on doctors, nurses and other support staff from the EU, many of whom are now planning to leave the country because their rights have not been guaranteed.

"These are skilled and hard-working people, who all work tirelessly to look after all of us. Our NHS, and the care we all rely on, will suffer without them.”

The former Deputy Prime Minister said it would cost the NHS around £265 million to bring in EU staff to fill these jobs over the next five years, a “wholly unnecessary burden at a time when the NHS is being asked to make dramatic efficiency savings”.

Mr Clegg insisted this was “just the tip of the iceberg” and that it was already known that the UK Government was borrowing an additional £15 billion a year as a direct result of the EU referendum; money which could otherwise be spent directly on the NHS.

"The NHS is far too precious to be damaged by Theresa May's decision to pursue a Ukip-style Brexit,” declared the Lib Dem spokesman.

"The Liberal Democrats will stand up to Theresa May's extreme Brexit and give the people the final say with the choice to remain in the European Union if they don't like the deal on offer," he added.

Earlier, Mr Clegg mocked Theresa May's Brexit slogan as he urged her to U-turn on plans to "snatch away" free school lunches from infant pupils south of the border.

The former DPM unveiled a new Lib Dem campaign poster, warning: "Breakfast Clearly Doesn't Mean Breakfast"; a parody of the Tory leader’s "Brexit means Brexit" mantra.

He said MPs in the next parliament would have to vote to repeal laws guaranteeing free school lunches if they wanted to implement the Tory plan to instead offer free breakfasts for all English primary school pupils.

Speaking in central London at the digital poster's unveiling, Mr Clegg explained: "We passed this provision of universally available free lunches for all little children in primary school into law and we did it at the time with the support of Conservative MPs.

"They then stood on a manifesto commitment to keep those free lunches two years ago and now they're being instructed by Theresa May to turn in a completely different direction and scrap these meals.

"They can stop this by saying before June 8 they will not vote for this measure and if they were to do so then thousands of children - particularly from low-income families up and down the country - would benefit," he added.