Fishing has played a prominent role in the Brexit campaign, with many fishermen voting to leave the EU. As part of the EU’s common fisheries policy, a large part of the fish caught in UK waters has been caught by European vessels.

It was hoped that Brexit would result in a large part of these catches by British ships.

However, under the terms of Mr Johnson’s new trade deal with the EU over the next five and a half years, only 25% of the EU’s catch will be transferred to British vessels.

After this stage, it will theoretically be possible to exclude European ships from British waters, but this would risk retaliatory tariffs from Brussels.

Additional restrictions imposed since the entry into force of the new trade agreement have significantly increased the bureaucracy for EU exports.

Speaking to Danish broadcaster DK, Ian Perkes, a fish exporter from Brixham in Devon, said “life has become very difficult” since Brexit.

He said: ‘Do you think I would have voted to leave if I had known it was going to cost me an extra £ 80,000 a year? Of course not.

“Only a fool would have voted to get out, right, knowing that.”

“We were lied to. We were told we were going to have free trade, we weren’t guaranteed to get our 12 mile limit back, but we assumed from what we read and what we were told that would be a case.

READ MORE: Nigel Farage calls for an immediate end to ALL Covid restrictions

This restored the UK’s position as a fully independent trading nation, but increased the bureaucracy for exporting many products to the EU.

Asked what he would like to say to himself in 2016, Mr Parkes replied: “Don’t be an idiot, stay in Europe.

“Why would you want to leave?

“Life has become very difficult since we left and I don’t see a happy ending right now.

“So yeah, I was wrong, hands up, I admitted I was wrong, but I’m not an isolated case.”

Under Mr Johnson’s Brexit trade deal, certain controls have been imposed on trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

This infuriated trade unionists and was partly to blame for a recent wave of loyalist riots.

While fishing represents less than 1% of the UK economy, it has acquired an important symbolic status during the Brexit campaign.

Mr Johnson has pledged that Brexit would allow the UK to ‘catch and eat pretty stupendous amounts of extra fish’.

Major Brexiteers have called on the EU to cut red tape around fish exports to the bloc.