Facebook has removed fake pro-Corbyn and anti-Brexit accounts linked to Iran amid a purge of hundreds of pages falsely posing as news organisations or grassroots activists in Britain.

Fake accounts called “The British Left” and “Free Scotland 2014” were among a list of 652 pages, groups and accounts shut down by the social media company, which found they were “distinct campaigns” for “coordinated inauthentic behaviour”.

On Wednesday, Facebook published extracts from the accounts which included praise for Jeremy Corbyn and satirical images mocking Brexit, adding that the network appeared to be part of an entity known as "Liberty Front Press" which was linked with “Iranian state media”.

One image posted by The British Left referenced Jeremy Corbyn having the “fewest expenses of any MP”, while another showed a series of “Brexit stamps” portraying an English longbowmen turning the arrow on himself and a man shooting himself in the foot with a pistol.

In an online blog, Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, said that one part of the network, “Quest 4 Truth”, had masqueraded as an independent news organisation but “is in fact linked to" an Iranian state media channel.