
The Telegraph’s correction to its heartbreaking private school fees sob story just gets better and better
You might remember a little while ago how a Daily Telegraph story about a family struggling to keep up with rising public school fees went wildly viral.
Indeed, so tough were they finding it after Labour imposed VAT on private education that they couldn’t go on five holidays a year any more.
The heartrending tale of an investment banker and his wife with a joint salary of £345,000 and two kids at private schools, it reported that the family had to switch from Waitrose to Sainsbury’s to save money – and cut the gardener back to once a month.
Not only that, here’s what the father had to say.
“Before the VAT increase, we’d have gone on around five holidays a year, including several long-haul trips. In previous years, we’ve been to the US a few times and travelled around, visiting the Hamptons, but now it’s mostly Europe and maybe one long-haul trip a year.”
It was roundly mocked at the time, and quite right too, and the story just got even better after this happened, once again from the Daily Telegraph.
But apart from the picture and all the words, it’s 100% true!
amazing apology from the Torygraph about their made up story I thought it was an amusing tale so that’s a shame pic.twitter.com/7JY8GniESf
— dave ❄️ (@mrdavemacleod) June 18, 2025
Translation. "We published a completely fake article". https://t.co/DAI93qFD3Y
— Gary Gilligan #FBPE #KTTO (@garygilligan) June 18, 2025
The Telegraph print an unverified story using stock photos and thinks it is a credible paper. pic.twitter.com/H9iznZoTTP
— dave lawrence (@dave43law) June 18, 2025
Lots of people thought it must have been AI generated, but it was apparently phoned in by a real person to a real journalist on the paper.
Even better – even better – the photo of the ‘family’ was at least 13 years old and previously used to promote a dental surgery in Delaware, the University of California’s Center for Child Anxiety, and a Holiday Inn in Singapore.
Imagine how out of touch you must be to not only make up a story to garner sympathy but somehow make the story utterly impossible to sympathise with.
— Jonathan Norris (@jonnorris12) June 19, 2025
To be fair it’s the funniest thing they’ve printed in years
— dave ❄️ (@mrdavemacleod) June 19, 2025
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H/T @mrdavemacleod