A university student has become an internet sensation after he spent months pretending to be an MP on social media.
Patrick O’Donnell is a politics student at the University of York, but his alternative persona is a fake Member of Parliament using the Instagram account @PatricktheMP.
The 18-year-old, who is not actually an MP, pretends to represent Clapham, which has not been a constituency since 1974.
Bizarrely, some people have even fallen for the gag.
A hilariously photoshopped picture of the York University student appears to show him shaking hands on stage with none other than Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn himself
Out on the campaign trail: The student does a grade A job of mimicking the frequently cringey social media tactics of actual MPs
Get out the vote! Patrick captioned this image: ‘If you live in Clapham and don’t vote for me then I’m telling the council not to collect ur bins for the next month!’
Here, the pretend MP informs his constituents that he had met with ‘some Russian billionaires’ who assured him that ‘Russia did not interfere with the US election of Donald Trump’
He even bumped into Ed Miliband on the tube recently – and couldn’t resist turning it into a post for his Instagram page
Patrick’s account is littered with pictures of him with real life MPs and ex MPs Jane Ellison, Justine Greening, Lord Hain (pictured) and Ed Miliband
Patrick’s account mocks the social media presence of politicians, featuring posed publicity shots, polling day photos and apologies for having ‘turned up to my office with the worst hangover’.
It is also littered with awkward photos of him shaking the hands of ‘constituents’ as well as pictures of him with real life MPs and ex MPs Jane Ellison, Justine Greening, Lord Hain and Ed Miliband.
And some genuine MPs seem to find the 18-year-old fresher’s joke hilarious.
Melanie Onn, MP for Great Grimsby, Tweeted Patrick saying: ‘Disappointed at the lack of hard hat pics #fakeMP.’
The joker pretends to be on first name terms with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, writing below one picture: ‘Many thanks to Jeremy for all his support in my campaign to be re-elected on 8th June.
‘This morning we spoke to locals outside Asda in Clapham Junction about the housing crisis and need for more affordable homes in London.’
The student even donned a Labour election rosette. He wrote: ‘My face when a voter says they are voting for ‘strong and stable leadership in the national interest’
Here, Patrick apologises to ‘constituents’ for being ‘extremely unproductive’ and turning up to his office with ‘the worst hangover’
‘Happy Carnival Everybody!’ Here, Patrick recognises the excellent work of police who kept everybody safe during Notting Hill Carnival this year
‘Engaging the youth vote’: In this post Patrick ‘reaffirmed’ his commitment to ‘legalising cannabis’
Another with a superimposed picture of him shaking Jeremy’s hand reads: ‘Great to meet the Prime Minister (@jeremy-corbynmp) this afternoon who kindly travelled all the way up to my uni just for this photo.’
He also puts up a video of his neighbour putting up a Vote Conservative sign with the caption: ‘I honestly can’t hack another 6 weeks of this crap #GE2017.’
Patrick’s following currently stands at 6,000, and his fake account is more popular than some belonging to real MPs.
He’s been running the gag since March, saying: ‘I think making this account will be one of my worst decisions this academic year.’
When Patrick, who is from Clapham, was asked why he chose to be a bogus MP, said: ‘I had a few vaguely political posts on my personal Instagram account but I thought it would be fun to take it a step further.
‘I had no idea how long it would last but after a few selfies with MPs and joke photo-shoots with my mates at school, I decided to keep it going as people seemed to find it funny.’
Even though his Instagram is obviously a joke, some people do mistake Patrick for a real MP.
‘I’ve genuinely had a few people asking me if I am an MP which is a bit scary considering all of my posts are meant to be taken as a joke,’ he said.
‘Anyone who looks at these with my facial expressions, body language and captions should know straight away I’m joking.’
Here, Patrick claims he is on his way to work. He wrote: ‘I am so proud to walk across this bridge everyday to work and represent the people of Clapham’
Patrick wrote here: ‘I had a wonderful afternoon meeting Sainsbury’s drivers in North Yorkshire. I shall continue to support delivery drivers up and down the country’
A well as meeting real-life MPs and other figures in the political world, Patrick’s Instagram is awash with hilarious images of him shaking hands with ‘constituents’
Patrick is a staunch Labour supporter, and his alter-ego Patrick the MP also represents Labour.
‘I support the Labour Party. The Conservatives don’t care about poor people and although the Lib Dems seem nice, they’re a bit useless,’ he said.
‘I really loved Labour’s 2017 election manifesto. I occasionally reference these policies and the Labour Party as a whole on my Instagram feed but a lot of what I do is pretty spontaneous, like complaining about the high volume of air in crisp packets.’
He even bumped into Ed Miliband on the tube recently – and couldn’t resist turning it into a post for his Instagram page.
In this post, Patrick claims to be meeting the mayor of Brussels to discuss how train lines can be improved between London and the Belgian capital
Here, Patrick says he is announcing to run again for the non-existent Clapham constituency seat in the General Election
In this post Patrick recognises the excellent work of his ‘campaign team’ and thanks them for the help in the run-up to this year’s General Election
Patrick is a staunch Labour supporter, and his alter-ego Patrick the MP also represents Labour
He said: ‘I haven’t met Jeremy Corbyn yet, but I did meet Ed Miliband on my 18th birthday.
‘It was in the evening, and I was out with my friends and we just saw him looking quite tired in the tube station going home with his wife.
‘I think he was quite taken aback when 30 of us kids just bumped into him and took selfies with him.’
Even though Patrick makes an excellent fake MP, he has no plans to become a real MP in the future.
‘I honestly have no idea what I want to do when I’m older but I definitely want to be involved in politics in some way.
‘You don’t necessarily have to be an MP to bring about change.
‘Most of the online reaction has actually been quite complimentary, one guy who lives in Ireland even said he’d vote for me if he could.
‘I think because politics is such a mess at the moment with Trump and Brexit, that people are just happy to see someone making fun of it all, rather than all the depressing news we see all the time.
‘Patrick the MP will continue doing what he’s doing to ensure we have a country ‘For the Many, Not the Few’, with lots of fun posts along the way.’