An imposter has been posing as Gillingham and Rainham MP Rehman Chishti on Twitter, fooling constituents, Medway councillors and MPs.

The fake account posted its first 'tweet', a message of 140 characters or less, on October 26 and has since gained more than 150 followers.

It is not known who set up the account, but Mr Chishti has reported it to Twitter officials who are in the process of removing it.

The content of the tweets has ranged from serious policy issues, such as changes to the NHS and the Thames Estuary airport, to the utterly mundane.

At 3.47pm on October 28, 'Mr Chishti' informed his followers that he was enjoying an egg sandwich from Marks & Spencer.

"Still in my Parliamentary office. Lots of briefings to print but one's printer has packed up. Decorum prevents me from using profanity," read another tweet posted three hours later.

The imposter has also interacted with other users on the site, answering questions they thought they had asked their local MP.

Journalists from the Daily Mail, ITV and Sky News began to follow the account, believing it was the real thing.

Fellow Conservative councillors Tony Watson, Mike O'Brien, Kelly Tolhurst and Chris Irvine are also among the accounts followers.

MPs were also duped, including Grant Schapps, the minister for housing and local government.

The trend of posing as someone on the site is not uncommon - often people will set up accounts pretending to be celebrities or footballers.

Twitter has a verification process to weed out the fakes. A tick will appear next to the names of famous names such as Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber, letting people know it is real.

Mr Chishti was contacted for comment but did not return calls.