Birmingham MP John Hemming and his girlfriend Emily Cox have been reunited with their long lost cat - and are planning to fit her with a radio tracking device.

Mr Hemming and Ms Cox are convinced they have found Beauty, but believe the cat has a secret litter of kittens hidden somewhere near her adopted home in Sparkhill.

The couple are hoping to use a radio or GPS collar to follow the cat to its kittens.

They were briefly reunited with Beauty for the first time since Mr Hemming’s wife stole her from Miss Cox’s Moseley home a year ago.

Miss Cox said: “We took her home for a night, but we realised she was still feeding some kittens and had to return her. We think she either has another home, or has her litter under a shed or garage somewhere.

“We want to find the kittens before we take Beauty back.”

The couple’s six-year-old daughter Isobel was devastated when Beauty went missing last year. Miss Cox said: “She was delighted to see Beauty again, but obviously is distraught to see her go again.”

Mr Hemming is convinced the cat is Beauty, not only because the markings match, and the brother cat Twinkle took to her, but she has a distinctive protruding breast bone from injury sustained when she was born.

Beauty has been staying with Sheila Bates, who has been feeding her since the cat turned up at the door to her home in Sparkhill during a heavy snow fall last November.

She said her own cat Felix brought Beauty to her home.

"I let her in and gave her some food and she’s come back every day since," Ms Bates said.

It was only when she saw coverage of the sentencing of Christine Hemming last week that she realised she had Beauty.

“I realised she turned up here around the time she went missing and I have been feeding her ever since. I called the Liberal Democrats office and spoke with Mr Hemming.”

Sheila had named the cat ‘Kitten’ and believes she had a first litter during the summer.

“I noticed she was getting fatter and thought someone was feeding her, and then suddenly she lost the weight and I realised.”

Mr Hemming’s wife Christine was sentenced to 150 hours unpaid work and a suspended prison sentence at Birmingham Crown Court over the theft of Beauty.

CCTV footage showed her entering Miss Cox’ home and emerging with the cat in September 2010. She claimed she could not remember stealing the animal and that she later released it near Miss Cox’s home.