'Thanks but no thanks' Brexit voters find creative ways to protest against pro-EU leaflets

Eurosceptics are using a range of creative methods to protest the government's £9 million pro-EU leaflets on social media.

Pro-Brexit campaigners have been demonstrating a range of alternative uses for the taxpayer-funded leaflets, including using the material as toilet paper, to posting the papers to Downing Street with a lump of concrete for the prime minister to pick up an extra postage charge.

Some went as far as setting fire to the leaflets and sharing pictures of the burning embers on Twitter.

"Thanks for your advice but no thanks," one wrote, while another deemed the leaflets, which will be delivered to every home in the UK as "bullying tactics."

Pro-Brexit Tory backbenchers have also condemned the leaflets, with former Commons deputy speaker Nigel Evans accusing the government of using the "spiv" tactics of Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe.

Ex-cabinet minister John Redwood branded the move an "insult" to voters.

More than 200,000 people have signed a petition against the 16-page leaflets on parliament's website, forcing a debate on the issue that will take place on May 9 - after most of them will have been delivered.

The government said of the petition: "The EU Referendum Act 2015 commits the government to provide information to the public on EU membership ahead of the vote, and that is what we will do."

Europe minister David Lidington defended the decision to send out the booklet at a cost equivalent to 34p per household.

"I am spending time virtually every day now signing replies to Members of Parliament who have enclosed letters from constituents where those constituents have said they feel they do not yet have enough information on which to take an informed decision and they would like to have some more please," he said.