Lord Winston has found himself in a spot of bother today after posting a stream of pictures on social media of a woman on the phone during a crowded train journey to Manchester.

The IVF pioneer and TV personality originally posted a picture on Twitter of the passenger on her phone this morning, along with the caption: “This woman has been on this phone call for 30 minutes in a crowded carriage. We are not interested in her conversation.”

The peer kept tweeting – at 40, 50 and then 60 minutes into the conversation, railing against the phone user through observations such as: “she’s now been on the phone for 40 minutes and having worn out one ear is now using the other one”, and “it’s now 60 minutes – she has a child with her. Why not talk to the child?”

However, Lord Winston was criticised for posting pictures of the woman, with a number of other users saying that it was a breach of her privacy, “bullying” and “passive aggressive behaviour”.

Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, the respected academic said he had deleted the tweets. However, when told that the lady in question, having heard about the tweets, deemed them to be “rude”, he responded: “she was rude. When I answer the phone, I go to the end of the carriage to take the call. We could hear every single word of her conversation.”