New £10 note worth £8.60 compared to pre-Brexit money

The new banknote is sixteen per cent smaller and fifteen per cent less valuable

Bank of England governor Mark Carney holds the new, devalued, £10 note (Getty)

The new £10 note launched today is 15 per cent smaller, and 16 per cent less valuable.

Eloise Todd, CEO of pro-EU campaign group Best for Britain, said that Britain had gone “one better” in reducing the value of its currency than it had its size.

"Since the referendum on 23 June 2016, the pound has lost 16% of its strength as measured against Britain's main trading partners. So today’s new tenner is only worth £8.60 of pre-referendum money on the international markets,” she said.

"When it comes to what we can buy in Europe, the decline against the euro is even more dramatic: down to under £8.40.

"This represents much more than a squeeze on spending money for a family holiday. The Ministry of Defence is planning to spend £19 billion on equipment priced in dollars and £3 billion on equipment priced in euros over the next decade. The Brexit devaluation means either getting less – potentially leaving our forces under-equipped – or paying more, so starving other projects of money.

"The exposure of the NHS to the costs of the Great Brexit Devaluation is almost certainly even greater. The British Medical Association says that Brexit is already having a ‘negative impact’ on the NHS and poses ‘serious risks’ in the future.

"In other words, today's new tenner will buy Britain's NHS, Britain's armed forces and millions of British holiday makers £8.60's worth of pre-referendum goods and services."

The new polymer banknote features author Jane Austen on the reverse, and is issued the day after EU President Jean Claude Juncker suggested in his "State of the European Union" speech that all EU countries should join the EU and the Schengen open borders agreement.