There have been some shameful incidents of racism in the wake of the Brexit vote, with some migrants told they are no longer welcome in St Albans.

Jelena Verdina, a teacher who moved to Britain from Latvia 14 years ago, said a customer recently stormed into a coffee shop in the city, where she is in a senior position, and “shouted at me ‘you are going to **** off from this country’.”

She said: “I don’t believe he was from St Albans, I think he was part of the group of people here campaigning to leave the EU.

“Our customers were great as they told him to leave the shop otherwise they would chuck him out.

“I have never been on benefits, and I have paid so much money in tax – I have a house here because this is where I live. Staff were coming to me, asking ‘what will happen to us?’”

“After the result, we had three different customers coming in, to say they love us. It is nice to be in an area where people are very supportive of each other.

“But some staff are very upset, as they don’t know about their future status.”

Jelena said she was not surprised at the result of the referendum, “because I follow politics, and I don’t think politicians spoke to people at their level of understanding about the EU, and what it does.”

There have also been posts on social media about other racist incidents, where local residents have suffered abuse in public places over the past few days. This has prompted a show of support from others, who have advised the victims to report the abuse to police.

A spokeswoman for Herts Police said: “There has been no significant change in the number of racially and religiously aggravated offences recorded since the result of the EU referendum.

“Eight incidents were recorded across the county in the three days after the referendum, compared to nine in the same period the week before.”