British nationals in the Netherlands have been turning to social media to express their feelings following Thursday night’s British election results which will see Brexit become a reality at the end of January next year.

Some 49,000 first generation British nationals currently live in the Netherlands.

‘Gutted beyond words. What happened to the British people? We’ve lost our minds,’ said one woman on Facebook.

‘No fan but hey – at least we are one step closer to knowing where we stand and moving on from the last 3 years… Always a bright side,’ said another British resident in the Netherlands. ‘The other bright side being – you don’t live there.’

Others pointed out that youngsters will be hardest hit. ‘The future of the UK’s youth has just been made harder. That is NOT progressing but going back to the days before the young Europeans had job opportunities throughout Europe,’ said Leroy Moorrees on Facebook.

Author Ben Coates, who describes himself as a ‘recovering Tory’, said on Twitter people must now accept that millions of people were not tricked into supporting Brexit.

If nothing else, can we now just accept that millions and millions of voters weren’t tricked or misled into supporting Brexit, but actually quite like it? I’m not a fan myself, but the idea that Brexit’s only supported by cranks and billionaires is impossible to sustain pic.twitter.com/mqLAeFlxXQ

— Ben Coates (@bencoates1) December 13, 2019

Others said they would welcome Brexit escapees.

Just woke up to the British news.

I hope that everyone feels welcome to move here and start our own little village in the middle of the grassfields, cows and windmills.

Not that the Netherlands is great, but at least we have so many small parties nothing ever really happens.

— MsFairyViolet (@MsFairyViolet) December 13, 2019