DORSET MP Simon Hoare has defended Will Smith’s actions at the Oscars, branding Chris Rock’s joke as "tasteless".

Will Smith slapped Chris Rock in the face on stage at the Oscars after the comedian made a joke about the actor's wife Jada Pinkett Smith.

The joke made reference to her shaved hairdo, a result of the hair loss condition alopecia.

In a tweet on social media Mr Hoare said: “Re Will Smith incident at the Oscars I’d just hope if someone thought it in good taste to make a joke at the expense of a medical condition of my wife then I’d get up and lamp him. The *joke* was tasteless."

Speaking about the tweet Mr Hoare said: “There are some things which are funny and there are some things that you can make a joke about but I would hazard a guess that if Mrs Smith had been diagnosed with terminal cancer or a fatal heart condition, a so-called comedian wouldn't make jokes about it.

“She has been diagnosed with a condition alopecia and I've had quite a lot of emails from women who have alopecia saying thank you for calling this out, they are fed up with the jokes and the silliness. It's embarrassing and upsetting and humiliating."

Responding to those who suggested the tweet was inappropriate for a member of Parliament, he said: “I wasn’t tweeting as a member of parliament per se but as a fellow husband. I don't think he would be making a joke about cancer or psoriasis or osteoporosis or a mental health condition.

“Somebody's ill health or condition isn't a laughing matter, it's off limits and I think a husband in love with his wife decided to do something and it was done in a very basic way but sometimes the blood pressure goes up and you think 'no, somebody I love has been upset and I’m not having it.'”

Mr Hoare says a number of women with alopecia have since contacted him about the tweet.

He said: “A lot of women with alopecia have contacted me, I think I must have had 15 or so emails to say 'thank you, we get embarrassed to go out, we feel we've got to put a hat on or wear a wig because we get fed up of the jokes and the pointing and the people thinking it's okay to laugh at a condition'.

“If it was cancer people wouldn't be laughing about it, so why should one something like that and I think it's hugely brave of Mrs Smith at one of the most glamorous events of the year where all the best and the brightest and the most beautiful, walk the red carpet, what a wonderful role model I think she provided to an awful lot of women to say 'you can do it.'”

Mr Hoare also receieved a negative email from a member of the public that he shared on his twitter.

Referring to the email, he said: “Well there's always one idiot out there who thinks it's clever to say something silly.

"My wife is not a figure in the public eye, I am, people can be as rude as they like about me but not my wife or my children and I think that's a core nuclear family instinct.”