Keir Starmer slaps down Gary Lineker over branding England team 's***' as Labour leader says country needs to 'get behind' the footballers

Keir Starmer issued a rebuke to Gary Lineker today as he insisted people should get behind the England team.

The Labour leader said he 'backs' the nation's footballers for their latest match at 8pm after a damning assessment from the BBC presenter and fellow former player Alan Shearer.

Lineker branded the team's performance 's***' on 'The Rest is Football' podcast, after they struggled to secure a 1-1 draw.

A number stars - including Harry Kane and Declan Rice - fired back at the Match of the Day host. 

Asked in an interview with Talk whether he agreed with Lineker and Shearer, the Labour leader said: 'I back the England team on this, I think look, they're in the middle of this competition.

'A really important game is coming up. Let's just get behind the team.

'You know, we've done this before. England – we sort of never, I don't think, have a particularly great start to these competitions.

'But then we click, we pull together. It's a fantastic team and I am going to back them all the way.'

England play Slovenia in Cologne tonight, in their final game of the group stages.

The team has already qualified for the knockout stage of the competition after Albania's failure to beat Spain yesterday.

Manager Gareth Southgate has said he is 'oblivious' to the criticism, while admitting that the performances need to improve.

Lineker made a tongue-in-cheek reference to the row on the BBC last night. 

During BBC One's coverage of Italy's draw with Croatia, Lineker said: 'If Albania fail to win tonight, England are officially through to the last 16.

'Because even if they lose tomorrow they will go through as one of the best third-placed teams. I wish people would stop being so critical of them.'