Matt Hancock said he is prepared to house a family of five Ukrainian refugees, when he appeared on Good Morning Britain earlier today (Tuesday, March 15).

The MP for West Suffolk had welcomed the Homes for Ukraine scheme set up by Michael Gove, in a tweet posted yesterday (Monday, March 14).

In it he wrote: "I urge everyone who is able to join me in signing up to this scheme to help Ukrainians in their time of need."

READ MORE: How you can help house Ukrainian refugees

Appearing on Good Morning Britain earlier he elaborated on what action he would be taking.

He said: "So in my constituency home I would be able to do this. I live both there and in London, so I'm not there all the time because as an MP obviously you both live in the constituency and I have a flat in London.

"Before going down this route I checked obviously with the kids, and they're really enthusiastic about it. I can come back to this point, we all want to help as the scenes have been so awful."

When questioned if every MP should offer a second home to refugees he joked that the presenters invited him "to become extremely unpopular among my colleagues".

He added: "The answer is that I think that people who don't want to and people who can't, I don't think we should say there is anything bad about that, or wrong.

"There's some MPs who have security issues which means they can't and I understand that and there's lots of people who don't have the opportunity to do it."

What was the reaction to Matt Hancock's pledge?

Reaction was not particularly kind to Matt Hancock despite this pledge.

One wrote: "A great idea but - no doubt these 2nd, rarely used, homes will be on expenses in which case it will be down to the taxpayer. It would be interesting to see in the fullness of time just what would be claimed on said expenses. I know - I’m getting more cynical by the hour!"

Another put: "Might want to rethink as when you lose your seat you’ll be spending a lot more time at home."

One user added: "Frustrating that Matthew is "using" this crisis to repair his PR - please Matthew we are NOT buying it".