Brexit campaigners have promised to slash red tape imposed by Brussels which they claim costs as much as £125bn a year.

Employment Minister Priti Patel will say that a Leave vote on June 23 would allow the UK to 'strip out' EU laws affecting small businesses and roll back the 'bureaucratic excesses' of Brussels.

In an attack on the single market the Vote Leave campaign claimed it is failing small businesses as only 6% of them export to the EU, but they all have to comply with the rules.

The Brexit campaign highlighted a 2005 Treasury document suggesting 'barrier to external trade and investment - such as tariffs, quotas and unjustifiably restrictive standards - could cost Europe's consumers up to 7% of EU GDP'.

Vote Leave claims that is more than £125bn a year to the UK in current prices - the equivalent of £4,639 per household or £23,236 per company.

Ms Patel will tell the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers conference in the City of London that in the event of a Leave vote in the referendum the Government should look to exempt small companies from EU rules.

Other measures imposed from Brussels could be replaced by 'sensible and proportionate' British laws, she will say.

'We can take back control over the laws we make, and begin the process of auditing and untangling our laws from Brussels' red tape,' she will say.

'Red tape has a disproportionate impact on small businesses, but Government attempts to reduce it have been frustrated by unelected bureaucrats in Brussels.

''Following a vote to leave the EU, we could strip out EU laws that hold small firms back.

'We could roll back the frontiers of the EU and work with business to replace costly and bureaucratic EU laws with sensible and proportionate British laws.

'We could make sure that businesses can thrive and prosper as we introduce one of the most flexible and liberating regulatory regimes anywhere in the world.

'We could confine to history the bureaucratic excesses of Brussels. And we could give businesses the freedom to prosper, grow, invest and create jobs in a global marketplace.'

Remain campaigners highlighted surveys suggesting that 80% of small firms wanted to stay in the EU.

Richard Reed, founder of Innocent Drinks and deputy chairman of Britain Stronger In Europe, said: 'More than 80% of British businesses - including eight out of 10 small businesses - support remaining in the European Union.

'As the OECD, the IMF and the Bank of England have made clear, leaving the EU's single market of 500 million people would cost jobs, increase prices, leave less money available for vital public services, and make each family £4,300 worse off.

'Small businesses will be stronger and better off in Europe, while leaving would be a leap in the dark.'