Gary Lineker: 'Leftie' Lineker becomes voice of post-Brexit outrage

Having spent his football career at centre-forward, Gary Lineker's outspoken stance in the aftermath of Britain's Brexit referendum has seen him proclaimed as the country's most prominent left-winger.

Lineker, renowned as English football's Mr Nice during his playing days, said he was "ashamed of my generation" after Britain voted to leave the European Union on June 23.

He has called people questioning the age of child migrants "hideously racist", ridiculed Nigel Farage, leader of the pro-Brexit UK Independence Party, and branded America's new president-elect Donald Trump "a joke".

Lineker's Twitter posts have been attacked by centre-right tabloid The Sun, which has labelled him a "leftie luvvie" and called for him to lose his high-profile BBC presenting job for not being impartial.

But people have rallied to the former England striker's defence on social media, with some mischievously dubbing him "the Leader of the Opposition".

"I didn't do this to start some sort of campaign, although it's turned out that way," Lineker told AFP.

Lineker, who has 5.38 million Twitter followers, describes his politics as "humanitarian", rather than left-wing, but it has not stopped him becoming an unlikely poster boy for Britain's centre-left.

Thousands of protesters gathered in Parliament Square in the wake of Britain's vote to leave the EU, which plunged the government into political turmoil and left the country deeply polarised (AFP/File)