The Telegraph’s sums to conclude that “one in 12 in London” is an illegal migrant were inaccurate, a ruling from press regulator IPSO has confirmed.
The calculations from The Telegraph were picked up and reused by the Daily Mail which has already faced an upheld IPSO complaint as a result.
The Telegraph’s front page article in January relied upon a study commissioned by Thames Water and obtained under freedom of information laws.
The analysis found that there were between 390,355 and 585,533 illegal migrants in the Thames Water London Water Resource Zone.
The Telegraph used these figures and a population estimate of 7,044,667 to say “that would mean one in 12 of the capital’s population is an illegal migrant”.
However IPSO noted that by The Telegraph’s own admission, this calculation was done inaccurately.
“It had failed to add the estimated migrant population to the overall population it had based the article upon,” the IPSO ruling said.
“In addition, it had not taken account of the fact, in its reporting, that the report was based on the population of the Thames Water London Water Resource Zone – rather than of London itself.”
Although The Telegraph was entitled to report on the information in the report and was “not responsible for the accuracy of the data contained within the report”, it was “required to take care not to report on the Thames Water findings in a way that was inaccurate, misleading, or distorted”.
IPSO said the headline of the article gave a misleading impression because it was not made clear that the figure based on The Telegraph’s calculations should have been “up to one in 12”.
The complaints committee said the headline made it seem like “the definitive position – rather than the highest estimated figure”.
A separate breach of the Editors’ Code was also recorded for a comment piece linked to the news article, written by a senior researcher from the Prosperity Institute, because it reused the “one in 12” claim and did not include the range of possible population estimates.
IPSO said both articles showed a “lack of care” had been taken.
A third complaint about another comment article was not recorded as a breach of the Editors’ Code it was presented as a columnist’s response to the front-page article, including the view that the “one in 12” figure may not be accurate, and commented on the “inherent ambiguity” regarding how many people reside in Britain.
The Telegraph did publish corrections relating to all three articles promptly without IPSO ordering it to do so.
Earlier this month The Telegraph similarly rapped by IPSO for showing “lack of care” over its use of data with a headline claiming that a quarter of sex crimes in the UK were being carried out by “foreigners”.
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
