Turn Away The Other Cheeky

“LEMBIT acted with total propriety. He did what any MP would do.”

So says the Liberal Democrat’s spokesman in the Express. And we move on.

Lembit Opik, LibDem MP, has done nothing untoward. Not for him those salacious tales of dallying with a rent boy (LibDem MP Mark Oaten) and struggling with alcoholism (LibDem MP Charles Kennedy). Only, something nags.

And look at that picture. Lembit Opik is standing alongside Romanian Gabriela ‘Cheeky Girl’ Irmia. Clad in his grey hair, spectacles and double-breasted tuxedo, Lembit resembles a wishy-washy James Bond. Gabriela, wearing a year’s supply of make-up, her hand on her hip and a dress that suggests a coat and a good time, is at his side.

Do this couple fit? Is there something more than just instant love in this relationship?

The Mail sums up the suspicion in its headline: “Opik lobbied the Home Office to save Cheeky Girl from deportation.”

The paper says that Gabriela and her Cheeky Girl sister Monica were told in the summer that they could be sent home to Romania.

But never fear because Opik her to help. Here he is passing on details of their case to Michael Foster, MP for Hastings and Rye, where the Girls live.

The LibDem spokesman says that later Opik also mentioned this pressing matter to Liam Byrne “in a corridor”. Byrne is the Immigration Minster.

And so we have a situation in which a caring, middle-aged MP is using his power and influence to help a Cheeky Girl in her hour of need.

Has he acted wrongly? The LibDems say not. As does The Cheeky Girls’ mother, Cheeky Woman Margit. Says she: “I saw this story and just started laughing. The tears were rolling down my cheeks.”

Cheeks wet with tears of joy… It sounds like a night in with Opik and Gabriela…

Posted: 21st, December 2006 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink