One of the adverts, which were listed as paid for by the Brexit Defence Force, promoted the far-right figurehead Tommy Robinson

Facebook approved pro-Brexit adverts containing material promoting Tommy Robinson and threatening the creation of a Leaver army, which campaigners allege is racist.

The adverts, which were viewed thousands of times, were listed as paid for by the Brexit Defence Force under Facebook’s transparency policy for political ads and were reviewed and approved by Facebook staff.

One of the adverts, which ran in February on the Brexit Votes Matter page, depicted Shamima Begum, the British-born Isis bride, with a photoshopped image of a baby with a black man’s face holding an AK-47 assault rifle. The advert was captioned: “We voted Brexit to MAKE BRITAIN GREAT AGAIN . . . and to secure our borders!” It was viewed between 1,000 and 5,000 times at a cost