Ed Balls slams Homes for Ukraine scheme delays after applying to host family

Ed Balls has hit out at the UK's Homes for Ukraine scheme, as he revealed how he and his wife have applied to help a family.

He told Good Morning Britain co-host Susanna Reid on Tuesday that they had been matched with a family, after offering up the free space in their home.

But now Ed, like others, faces the waiting game as they have to wait for the visas to come through, so that the chosen family can travel - which he confirmed was a mother and her two children.

Ed blasted the scheme after revealing it took 10 days just to receive an email confirming the application had yet to be processed, with them being matched nearly a month ago.

Ed Balls has hit out at the UK's Homes for Ukraine scheme, as he revealed how he and his wife have applied to help a family (ITV)

Many have complained about the scheme and the lack of urgency, after families in the UK signed up to house one or more refugees.

With there being a process to the scheme, many have felt it is taking too long - and many of those residents matched to a family from Ukraine, or an individual, are waiting weeks for them to receive their visas.

Good Morning Britain presenter Ed Balls told co-host Susanna Reid he had 'personal experience' with issues with the scheme (ITV)

Speaking about this to Susanna, he explained: "I can speak from personal experience, we actually applied for the scheme at the very beginning, our family, our two oldest children are at university, so we have space.

"Three and a half weeks ago we achieved a match with a family, a mum and two children, and we’re still waiting for the visa, [it’s] still to come through."

He added: "They’re in Budapest, we still can’t actually let them travel, and it took like almost 10 days before we even got an email saying, 'At some point we will process your application'.

Ed blasted the scheme after revealing it took 10 days just to receive an email confirming the application had yet to be processed (ITV)

"And you think why can’t we have an emergency visa that we deal with like it’s an emergency, and get these families to some safety and some calm and allow them to think about the rest of their lives, rather than just to be in limbo in other countries?"

Ed later flagged the issue again with Defence Minister James Heappey on the show, sharing his personal experience and frustrations with how long it was taking with little communication.

Heappey did agree that more needed to be done with the response and the scheme, as he talked of the ways the government and UK were helping the people of Ukraine.

Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV.