Anti-EU billboards reading ‘Halt ze German advance’ placed on M40

The billboards have been dubbed 'pathetic' and 'deeply embarrassing'

Vote Leave have distanced themselves from the billboards (Getty Images )

Billboards calling on people to “Halt ze German advance” by voting in favour of Brexit have been pictured on the side of a motorway.

Several boards are understood to have been placed alongside the M40 in Oxfordshire. They use Vote Leave branding – the official anti-EU campaign - and read in full: “’Halt ze German advance!’ Vote Leave”.

Pictures of the boards have quickly circulated on social media, with users branding them as “xenophobic” and “pathetic.”

Jonathan Harris-Bass said over Twitter the boards were, “Despicable, tragic [and] deeply embarrassing”, while another user labelled them “a very low moment in the Brexit debate”.

Vote Leave have been quick to distance themselves from the boards and have emphasised they are not responsible for the posters.

Replying to one user on Twitter, Vote Leave said: “These weren’t put up by [Vote Leave] – we don’t know who’s done them, but hope they’ll take them down.”

The campaign director of Vote Leave, Dominic Cummings, said he believed “dummies on our side” were responsible.

“They are not Vote Leave billboards, we don't know who put them up but think it's dummies on our side not BSE,” he said over Twitter.

It remains unknown who created and put up the posters. A Leave Vote spokesperson told Buzzfeed News they are investigating the issue.

The in-out referendum on EU membership will be held on 23 June this year. Phone polls suggest a lead for the Remain campaign, while online polls show a closer race.