ONLINE election adverts targeting Facebook users have ramped up ahead of polling day, new figures show.

Data shared with the Oxford Mail shows voters were targeted with tailored messages sent to voters by all the main political parties in the past four weeks.

The advertising online is largely unmonitored despite the huge reach of Facebook but has been uncovered by Who Targets Me and the Bureau Local, part of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

Almost 250 ads were spotted by volunteers in the Oxford area between May 3 and June 6. The volunteers were aged 19 to 72.

It included messages from the Conservatives, Green Party, Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

Voters being targeted in the marginal Oxford West and Abingdon seat saw messages in the past week including one from the Lib Dems saying the party was ‘poised to make meaningful gains’.

It added: “But we need your vote to count.”

Meanwhile, the Green Party warned users that American President Donald Trump had ‘pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement’, telling them: “What the UK does now is up to us.”

Labour’s ads said Theresa May kept ‘changing her mind’ and claimed the Lib Dems ‘have a legacy of broken promises’.

No volunteer had seen a Facebook advert from the Tories since May 11, although this could mean they were simply not targeted. Because of the data Facebook holds on its users, advertisers can be highly specific when choosing who they want to target.