A LOVESTRUCK Worcester man desperate to bring his Filipino bride to Britain has been given fresh hope of a New Year reunion.

City MP Mike Foster has faxed a letter to the British Embassy in Manila asking immigration chiefs to look at Jon and Merlinda Baddeley's application "sympathetically".

The pair married in October, but complex paperwork has kept them apart ever since.

Now, thanks to the intervention of Mr Foster - who had already tackled the authorities on the subject - Mr Baddeley is hopeful they will be reunited at his Ronkswood home after his wife presents her papers to the embassy next Wednesday, January 2.

"I was quite surprised at the letter," said the 64-year-old, a former butcher.

"Mr Foster's put his head on the line for me. MPs don't usually back visas - it's a thing they just don't do.

"I'm absolutely over the moon about it, and so is Merlinda."

He said the embassy warned there was a six-month waiting list for visas, which it blamed on a computer glitch.

"Can you believe it?" said Mr Baddeley, from Ripon Road. "It's like 50s Britain out there. It's hard to describe.

"But I'm hoping that following Mr Foster's letter they'll give Merlinda's application special consideration.

"It would mean so much to me to have her here. Knowing she'd be coming would make my year. It really would."

The couple met on the Malaysian island resort of Langkawi three years ago when RAF veteran Mr Baddeley was visiting on a Malaya Association trip.

Forty-eight-year-old Mrs Baddeley, a divorcee with a 12-year-old daughter, is from Pambanga in the Philippines and was working as a beautician in the hotel where Mr Baddeley was staying.

Their Far East romance blossomed, and the 64-year-old returned to Merlinda's country six months later and asked her to marry him.

They kept in constant touch, meeting up six or seven times before their wedding - due to take place in June but held up by red tape.

"Jon's been trying to get his wife home to the UK for a while," said Mr Foster.

"I know it's been a complex and frustrating process, but I'll do what I can to support constituents like Jon and others to improve their quality of life - and that includes Jon living in the same house as his wife."