The European Commission has highlighted lacklustre growth predictions for the British economy after Brexit.

In an emoji-laden tweet, the Commission placed the UK at the very bottom of a long list of growth forecasts for the bloc’s current 28 members next year.

Malta, Ireland and Slovakia topped the table, with expected growth of 4.9, 4.5 and 4.1% respectively.

While Italy and Britain came joint bottom with a predicted increase of just 1.2% next year.

The figures relate to economist predictions of how much the Gross Domestic Product of each nation will increase as a percentage.

The data is produced by the EU’s Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs, which released its Autumn report on Thursday.

The EU’s view of the British economy is worse than the independent Office for Budget Responsibility, which said the UK economy would grow by 1.6% next year.

The EU predicts Britain will also see 1.2% growth in 2020.

David Lammy, the Labour MP, said the tweet showed Britain had become “the sick man of Europe”.

While others highlighted the time it takes to find the Union Flag.

In its outlook, published alongside the tweet, the European Commission said that weak consumer confidence was acting as a drag on Britain’s economic prospects.

It added that Brexit “uncertainty” was likely behind lower planned investment by businesses.

HuffPost UK has contacted the Treasury for comment.

It comes after Pro-EU campaigners and MPs seized on the Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab’s “stunning” admission at a conference on Wednesday that he did not understand how important the Dover to Calais crossing was for UK trade.