Ipso Concedes the Telegraph’s ‘Foreign Benefits’ Story is True – But Censures the Newspaper Anyway!
Ipso, the press watchdog, has been criticised for a “bizarre” decision to censure the Telegraph over a story about benefits for foreign nationals despite conceding that it was true. The Telegraph has more.
The Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) upheld a complaint over the accuracy of an article headlined ‘More than one million foreign nationals claiming benefits’, saying the information the article was based on did not prove the central claim.
In fact, figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) show that the article, published in March last year, underestimated the number of foreign nationals in receipt of benefits, which was actually 1.2 million.
Nevertheless, the Telegraph has been told to print a correction online and in print, which includes Ipso’s ruling questioning the way the figures were presented.
Ipso stated that because the DWP data on which the article was based recorded the nationality of claimants when registering for a National Insurance number, rather than the nationality at the time they were claiming benefits, some claimants might have since acquired UK citizenship, and would not be foreign nationals at the time they were claiming benefits, but that the article did not make this clear.
Ipso agreed, however, that the Telegraph could also publish alongside its ruling the fact that DWP figures released more recently show that more than 1.2 million people with a non-British-citizen immigration status were indeed claiming Universal Credit at the time in question, and that the figure had been above one million since July 2023.
Sir David Davis, the Conservative MP and free speech campaigner, said: “This seems to me to be an extraordinarily unwise decision by Ipso.
“I really do think Ipso should look back at its own decision-making. This is not the only time we have had some odd decisions from it.”
Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s Spokesman for Home Affairs, called it a “bizarre decision” by Ipso.
He said: “Britain’s press watchdog has forced a newspaper to print a correction about a migration story it itself accepts is true.
“It looks like an attempt to massage the narrative and downplay the true scale of Britain’s migration crisis.”
The Telegraph’s story, published in March 2025, was based on an analysis of DWP data by the Centre for Migration Control (CMC).
Robert Bates, the Research Director at the CMC, said: “The modelling published by the Telegraph – which showed over one million foreigners were claiming benefits in March 2025 – was subsequently corroborated by an official DWP data release. It is beyond question that the reporting was correct.”
Worth reading in full.
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I agree all that but how extraordinary it is that the government does not routinely publiosh accurate, timely relevant data on all issues it administers.
It’s more than extraordinary, it’s downright criminal, our public servants should provide all such information, and we should demand they do! Failure to comply should result in removal from office and prosecution.
We all know why IPSO has done what they have done, its all part of the Gaslighting of the British Public. IPSO it doesn’t wash any more, just like Ofcom you are part of the Establishment, and part of the State controlled message, your organisations are not trusted.
The IPSO has to do their bit to uphold the narrative.
So now those who don’t like the Telegraph can point to the ruling and say the paper was censured.
IPSO has done a great job of drawing attention to the fact that more than a million foreign nationals are claiming benefits, and also that they are dimwitted establishment stooges. I doubt that was their intention, but censorship often backfires when confronted with the truth.
Streisand effect…
IPSOS rulings supporting the establishment were questionnable also with Covid/jabs etc.
Ipso first up against the wall when I become god-emperor.
Gonna need a bigger wall.
I guess it’s one of those things which the Establishment believes “is true, but mustn’t be said” ….. which I seem to recall the Legal Android said a while ago relating to the fact that only a woman can have a cervix.
“the truth that must not be said” generally refers to uncomfortable, taboo, or disruptive realities that are deliberately suppressed to maintain social harmony, avoid pain, or protect power structures. Voltaire encapsulated this sentiment by saying, “Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said”.
IPSO given direction by the Ministry of Truth.
Truth then, like beauty, according to all our authorities, establishments, political class and media, is NOT in the eye of the beholder at all. We are all to dismiss what we see in front of us and instead replace those observations with a politicized version of truth, which must align with prevailing orthodoxy.
IPSO never let the truth or the facts disturb their ideological perspective.
Are the rest of the media up in arms about this? If not, then we would be correct to suppose that the MSM is in the pocket of the government and why the Daily Sceptic, and others of its ilk, are our lifeline to truth.
Even though claimants may become “British” they never lose the nationality of their parents and place of birth…therefore still ‘foreign’.