Ed Balls houses Ukrainian refugees - with Strictly star providing dance lessons

17 February 2023 , 08:07

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Ed Balls discussed his recent decision in a Ukrainian refugee family during this week's final edition of Good Morning Britain.

The former politician, 55, and his wife, Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, have provided shelter to a mum and her two daughters amid Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine leading to millions of Ukrainians fleeing their home country.

Ed's one-time Strictly Come Dancing partner, Russian-born Katya Jones, has even been giving the young girls living in the former politician's house.

The Ukrainian family have actually been living with Ed and Yvette since April last year - with their friends staying round the corner - but the Good Morning Britain presenter's kind gesture has only just been publicly revealed.

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Ed Balls and his wife Yvette Cooper have been housing the family since April (PA)

Yeva, one of the young Ukrainian children staying with Ed and his family, is taking part in dance competitions with a pal from her home country during their time in the UK - even winning a competition at the Blackpool Tower Ballroom.

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Discussing Susanna Reid's upcoming visit to Kyiv next week, to mark the first anniversary of Russia's invasion, Ed revealed on Good Morning Britain today how his ITV colleague will be chatting to Yeva's dance teacher in Ukraine.

"They have been living with us in Castleford since last April," Ed explained this morning when hosting Good Morning Britain.

Ed's guests have won dance competitions (ITV)

"They had to escape overnight when Kyiv was being bombed - they had to leave their dad."

The revelation follows Ed slamming the Home for Ukraine scheme in April over delays with applications - revealing he and Yvette had applied to take in a family last year.

Speaking with Susanna on Good Morning Britain on April 26, 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.

On today's show, Ed revealed the family had been living with him since April (ITV)

"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," Ed explained.

"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 has been passionate about the scheme (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?"

Following his admission on Good Morning Britain today, Ed's application must have been processed shortly after his comments on the ITV show last year.