A Kosovan couple fighting deportation have won the backing of the president of the Liberal Democrats.

Fred Gurraj and Donina Lunaj have been in hiding with their baby son since the Home Office ordered them to leave.

Friends in St Leonards, where they have lived for seven years, have been fighting for them to be allowed to stay.

Now Simon Hughes, MP for North Southwark and Bermondsey, Lib Dem spokesman for constitutional affairs and the party's attorney-general, has taken up their case.

On a visit to meet party officials in St Leonards on Friday, Mr Hughes agreed to write to the Home Office to ask it to reconsider its position.

The couple went underground last October after being told their appeal had failed.

Their friend and advocate Brett McLean, a Lib Dem party member who welcomed Mr Hughes to Sussex, said: "It is tough for them, knowing the police can deport them."

Mr Lunaj, a former cameraman, left Kosovo after he was imprisoned by Serbs. His finance followed him to the UK and they were married in London before moving to Sussex.

Their seven-month-old baby Kevin Lunaj was born at Conquest Hospital, St Leonards.

They have been working almost continually since entering the UK in 1999. Mr Gurraj, 33, is employed in construction while Mrs Lunaj, 24, works in a care home.

Mr McLean said they plan to remain in St Leonards and apply for British citizenship in a couple of months.

Sharon Bowles, MEP for the South-East, and Pam Brown, Mayor of Hastings, are supporting the case and have written to the Home Office.

Michael Foster, Labour MP for Hastings and Rye, said the couple must abide by the law and return to Kosovo, from where they can apply for citizenship if they wish to make the UK their permanent home.