Britain’s Future is targeting Facebook users in Labour seats with adverts to “respect the referendum”
Voters in Labour-held constituencies are being targeted with pro-Brexit Facebook adverts.
Each ad is customised to include the first name of an area’s MP alongside a picture of them. It reads “Tell our MP to oppose the Remain establishment’s Second Referendum,” with a graphic imploring constituents to email their MP and “tell them to deliver Brexit.”
This year 183 different iterations of the advert have been published by the Facebook page Britain’s Future.
The latest batch were launched on January 12 and focus on Labour MPs including the likes of John McDonnell, Yvette Cooper and Tom Watson. They can all be viewed here.
Britain’s Future says it is “dedicated to making a positive, optimistic case for Brexit.” The campaign group’s website is edited by Tim Dawson, a journalist with bylines in right wing publications like The Spectator, Spiked and The Telegraph.
Facebook’s ad library shows Britain’s Future has posted more adverts including the phrase “EU” than the Conservative party.
Other adverts posted by the page promote a no deal Brexit. They cite David Davis and argue “no deal would not be the disaster that is painted by Remainers.”
A series of its ads were taken down by Facebook in November because they breached its advertising policies. Facebook said: “These ads ran without a “Paid for by” label. After the ad started running, we determined that the ad was related to politics and issues of national importance and required the label. The ad was taken down.”
This is not the first time Britain’s Future have employed digital tactics to make the case for Brexit.
In November it ran a series of Google adverts in direct competition with the government on the search term “what is the Brexit deal.”
The page promoted by the campaign group said May’s deal betrayed the Brexit vote.
Britain’s Future have not responded to requests for comment.
