Richard Madeley addressed the "elephant in the room" as he quizzed former health secretary Matt Hancock over his intentions to house Ukranian refugees. The MP appeared on Tuesday's Good Morning Britain where hosts Susanna Reid and Richard Madeley spoke to the MP about his plans to sign up his home to house Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war.
Matt Hancock explained: “I’ve been working with a British Ukranian whose family is trying to get out of Ukraine. I’ve been working with them for a couple of weeks now and we were talking about what happens when they get here. And I just felt so strongly about it, I said we will make sure there’s accommodation, including if that means coming to stay with me. That was a week or so ago and then the government has come forward with this scheme.
"So whether it’s that family or it’s another family that comes through a different route, if they manage to get accommodation because they have got family here, I’m opening my home. I just feel so strongly about it because we’ve seen these enormous acts of bravery."
But things later turned a little awkward as Richard addressed the "elephant in the room". He said: "The elephant in the room in this interview is that we all know that there will be cynics watching this and people who will go online and on Twitter and social media and they will say that the reason you are doing this is to help rebuild your reputation after you had a bad political fall and you’re sort of in the wilderness. And that that is why you are doing this. What would you say to people who say that?"
Hancock told him: "It’s actually completely the other way around. This came from me doing constituency work which doesn’t often get talked about but all MPS do it and nearly all of them really enjoy it. I was on BBC Radio Suffolk yesterday morning talking about the scheme and I was asked straight up – ‘you’re encouraging other people to sign up. Are you going to sign up?’.
"And I just answered the question and then your team phones and said should you come on? So I didn’t do this in order to do it in public but if by me coming on and us having this discussion, I can encourage other people who are in a position to, to go on the website, sign up, it’s really easy. If I can encourage one more person to sign up to this scheme by coming on and talking to you then it will have been worth it."
During the interview, Madeley also wanted to know just how many refugees Matt Hanock would be able to "put up". He asked: "How many people are we talking about in this family if they come out? While Hancock answered: It will be around five."
He continued: "In my constituency home I would be able to do this. I live both there and in London so I’m not there all of the time because, as an MP, you live in the constituency and I have a flat in London. Before going down this route, I checked with the kids and they are really enthusiastic about it because we all want to help. The scenes have been so awful."
Meanwhile, Susanna also quizzed the MP over the difficulty of securing a visa referring to it as the “visa obstacle” while Hancock explained the new “visa scheme” which he claimed was “essentially a sponsored visa scheme”.
Taking to Twitter, viewers shared their thoughts on the MP's interview.
One simply said: "Well said."
Another wrote: "Am I being really cynical, I just don’t believe it until I see it."
A third added: "Just trying to right his wrongs This doesn't wash with me I'm afraid."
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