Brexit was not influenced by the Cambridge Analytica scandal as no UK users’ data was harvested by the consultancy firm, Facebook has claimed.

The social media company is appealing the £500,000 fine imposed on it by the UK watchdog last month after it estimated up to one million UK citizens had been affected by the breach.

In a statement released today, Facebook said the Information Commissioner Office’s (ICO) own investigation had “found no evidence” UK users' data involved in the initial breach was then used in political campaigns.

The ICO has said that it stands by its fine, but would not be commenting further as the matter was going to appeal.

Last month the ICO ruled that Facebook had let a “serious breach” of the law take place during the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which the data of up to 87 million Facebook users data was misused.