Telegraph censured for story of fictional family’s struggle to pay school fees

A stock image of a family believed to have been used on the original article. Photograph: Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock

The Telegraph has been reprimanded by a press standards watchdog after it published an entirely fabricated story about a wealthy banker complaining of the impact of school fee increases.

Ian Fraser, a freelance journalist and author, complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) that the Telegraph had breached the editors’ code of practice in an article headlined: “We earn £345k, but soaring private school fees mean we can’t go on five holidays.”