UK Gov't Spent $122,000 Past Week to Promote Brexit Deal on Facebook - Reports

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The UK government spent about 96,700 pounds ($122,000) over the week on promoting the Brexit agreement on Facebook, the Daily Express newspaper reported, citing data from Facebook Ad Library.

That amount of advertising was placed in the period from December 2 to 8 in anticipation of the vote on the deal in the parliament initially scheduled for Tuesday.

According to the publication, the office of Prime Minister Theresa May also paid for commercials on Instagram.

Ads posted in social networks explained the value of the deal for British citizens, as well as issues of immigration and job search. In addition, the commercials listed the benefits of the deal for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The draft Brexit deal, agreed by the UK government and Brussels in November, has faced much criticism both from the UK opposition and the ruling party, with several members of the cabinet having resigned over disagreements with the deal. According to critics, the "backstop" provision of the deal, which is meant to prevent a hardening of the Irish border, constrains the UK ability to fully exit the EU's Customs Union, with a union-wide regulatory framework preventing any unilateral withdrawal on its part.

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The vote on the document in the UK Parliament was scheduled for Tuesday evening, but after three days of debates, May made a statement in which she acknowledged that the agreement in its current form would be rejected by the overwhelming majority of deputies, and postponed the vote indefinitely.