Conservative MP Guy Opperman mistakes 55 year-old dancer for Mario Balotelli in House of Commons
Conservative MP Guy Opperman caused a stir by claiming Mario Balotelli had popped into the House of Commons for a debate on drugs policy.
Opperman, a member of parliament for Hexam in Northumberland, inadvertently fooled reporters and politicians into believing the Liverpool striker was sitting in the gallery wearing a "sharp suit, pink shirt and a poppy."
The man sitting in the Commons Gallery was in fact Ken Hinds, a 55 year-old dancer and chairman of Haringey's stop and search monitoring group.
As expected, 24 year-old Balotelli was more than 200 miles away in Liverpool during the debate about the government's policy on drugs.
A Daily Telegraph reporter cleared things up by tweeting a photo of Hinds, more 30 years Balotelli's senior, from outside the Commons, leaving Opperman to dwell on an embarrassing own goal.