The UK will lose more than the EU from its decision to leave the bloc, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini told Reuters at the elite Tsinghua University in Beijing.

“Let me tell you that to me all member states are important, equally, because one can be contributing more on some policies than others. But I think our British friends will lose more than what we lose," she told the students.

“They will have to dismantle their belonging to a community. We will lose an important member state,” she added.

Mogherini said that “the European Union, even after the UK will be out, will continue to be the first market in the world, the second largest economy in the world.”