To some, it was an act of bare-faced cheek. To others, it was simply another twist in a bizarre love story that has oscillated between farce and celebrity kitsch.

But the accident-prone Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik admitted yesterday that he had lobbied a government minister and a Labour MP to prevent his pop star lover from being deported. Gabriela Irimia, 24, one half of the pop duo the Cheeky Girls, faced being returned to Romania before the intervention of Mr Opik on behalf of her and her twin sister, Monica.

A Lib Dem spokesman confirmed yesterday that Mr Opik, 41, who was the fiancé of the television weather presenter Sian Lloyd, pulled strings to keep the Cheeky Girls in Britain. Ms Lloyd described last week how she broke off their engagement after their lives moved apart.

Mr Opik raised their case with Michael Foster, the Labour MP for Hastings and Rye, where the sisters live, and with Liam Byrne, the Home Office minister responsible for immigration, whom he lobbied in a Commons corridor. “The only other representations were made by Michael Foster as their constituency MP,” a Lib Dem spokesman said. “Lembit acted with total propriety with regard to this matter. He did what any MP would do and referred the matter to the appropriate Member of Parliament.”

The Cheeky Girls, whose single The Cheeky Song (Touch My Bum) was voted the worst pop song in history, are understood to have been denied leave to remain in Britain in August. Assisted by the ardent intervention of Mr Opik, they apparently satisfied immigration officials that as self-employed entertainers they were able to maintain themselves in Britain.

Margit Semal, the sisters’ mother, said that she had been advised by her lawyer not to comment.

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