Liam Payne
One Direction's Liam Payne Getty

Having spent the last 12 months flying back and forth to the US to work on solo material, Liam Payne has become accustomed to the jetset lifestyle.

The father of one uploaded – and swiftly deleted – a photo of himself flipping the bird to the camera along with the boastful caption: "You can only get jet lag from a jet the rest of yall have got plane lag #NoF**ks."

But the One Direction singer's decision to brag about his life of luxury in an Instagram post quickly rubbed fans up the wrong way.

"Can someone please come and collect Liam Payne? He's had a Capri sun and he's acting up to impress the year sevens again," one fan tweeted.

Another wrote: "Liam Payne's Instagram feed has been a load of buffoonery lately."

A third said the star had lost his appeal because of that attitude, adding: "I remember when I used to think he was the cutest of them all."

One fan summed up Payne's online offering: "This is tragic."

Critics took pleasure in reminding the 24-year-old heartthrob that the post was technically incorrect, with one person tweeting: "Does this knuckle-dragging mouth-breather realise commercial planes have JET engines too. Oh, bless him. He's trying at least."

Another added: "The most offensive thing is that he doesn't realise most commercial planes are indeed jets since they are propelled by jet engines. So...nerghhhh."

When one critic commented: "Do you know you're white?' he hit back: "Do you know your hair is pink?"

Payne, who is worth an estimated £50m, swiftly deleted the offending snap and replaced it with a picture of himself lying topless on a bed underneath a huge mirror.

That worked better for some of his 15.2 million followers. One wrote: "Now this is some view."