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An American who sparked a backlash by handing out badges encouraging Londoners to talk to strangers on the Tube today said: "Haters gonna hate".

NHS worker Jonathan Dunne made and handed out 500 badges designed to be worn by commuters who wanted to strike up a conversation on the Underground.

But the badges, which carried the question 'Tube chat?', sparked outrage on social media from Londoners who considered solitude on their commute sacrosanct.

The 42-year-old responsible for them hit back, though, telling sceptics the badges are for lonely people who want some company.

"Haters gonna hate," Mr Dunne told the Standard. "Who cares if that’s what they’re writing about? If people are really upset by 500 tube chat badges then they need to get a life.”

After the Tube chat badges were handed out this morning at Old Street, Londoners took to social media in their swathes to condemn the idea of talking to a stranger during their commute.

Some Twitter users even chose to make their own mock badges, telling people not to talk to them.

And Mr Dunne, who is from Colorado and now lives in Green Lanes, revealed that he had difficulty handing out the 500 badges before making it into work.

He said: "It's rush hour so it's sort of running the gauntlet.

"The reaction to the badges was about 80/20, 80 percent really negative and 20 per cent positive but it's completely voluntary.

"I thought it would be a fun thing to do, handing out the flyers and chatting to people but it didn't go so well.

"People wouldn't take one, saying they might end up talking to a psychopath."

Mr Dunne added that the idea behind the badges came from an activity he organised as an administrator at the NHS and from his Colorado upbringing.

He said: "I organised an activity at the NHS to coincide with the Olympics and to get people involved but no one came.

"My wife and I both come from small towns in America and locally we know everyone.

"If you go to the supermarket there you know everyone at least by their face, but as soon as you walk out of the door in London you're anonymous."

Despite wearing a badge on his commute home yesterday, Mr Dunne said nobody tried to speak to him on the Tube.

But he added that he would be wearing one home tonight and that "hope springs eternal"

He also revealed that he was planning on making more badges to hand out, despite criticism from Londoners and his wife.

He said: “When I do it again I’m not going to do it at a station, being somewhere different will bring up a completely different reaction.

“At a station people put a guard up and I think I could have been holding anything and people would have told me to go away.

“I’m thinking about doing another hundred but my wife isn’t too keen."