Liam Payne has hit out at the press for their treatment of women after totally innocent photographs of him standing next to his female colleague were used to imply they were romantically linked.

The One Direction lad shared an article which published the pictures and detailedhis arrival at a hotel with a 'mystery girl'.

Well, Liam wasn't here for his professional staff member being reduced to nothing more than a 'mystery brunette' to a suit their story, so he took to Twitter to blast the demeaning treatment of his staff.

"My team is full of talented, smart professional women. I find it wrong that they are reduced to being linked to me romantically in the press just for simply standing next to me.

Isn’t it time we treat women with a bit more respect?" he wrote.

The singer implied that this certainly isn't the first time it's happened, writing in a second tweet: "So far the press have done this with every female member of my staff."

He added: "It’s demeaning some are in relationships and it complicates there work environment when they do this to them ... I think it stops here [sic]."

The tweets combined garnered over 232k likes, and Liam has been praised for sticking up for women.

"Liam Payne is a feminist icon, spread the word," wrote one person.

Another added: "Oh my God, Payne, that was was amazing to read. Thank you so much for never letting women down."

In fact, thousands of people wrote back to him thanking him for speaking up.

Nice one, Liam.