An executive at Facebook has said that there is "absolutely no evidence" that users of the social network were targeted by Russia in a bid to influence the 2016 Brexit referendum.

"We have found no evidence of a significant attempt by outside forces" to sway the vote, Nick Clegg, Facebook's vice president of global affairs and communications, told the BBC on Monday.

Clegg said the company ran two studies using data it had in the run-up to the EU withdrawal vote to see if there was evidence of foreign interference, using the same methodology that was used to identify potential Russian activity during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Russia has denied meddling in the Brexit referendum. Likewise, the U.K. government has said in the past that it's seen no evidence of foreign actors like Russia managing to influence the British democratic process successfully.

The former deputy prime minister of the U.K., Clegg was appointed as Facebook's communications lead late last year. He had previously led the centrist Liberal Democrats party, and is known to be in favor of the U.K. remaining in the EU.

British politics is in a fragile state currently, with both the public and Westminster divided over issue of the U.K.'s membership of the bloc. Brexit has been a central theme of the U.K. leadership contest, which sees hardline Brexiteer Boris Johnson as the favorite to win.