The mystery of the Telegraph’s missing family

    The paper published a heartbreaking story of a family only able to afford one long-haul holiday a year after VAT hikes - only for it to vanish from its website

    The excitable Telegraph raised a few eyebrows this weekend with a first-
    person piece decrying Labour’s stewardship of the economy, headlined “We earn £345k, but soaring private school fees mean we can’t afford to go on five holidays”.

    The piece detailed the heartbreaking story of a family hit hard by Labour’s imposition of VAT on private school fees, with the father complaining: “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.”

    After it was roundly mocked on social media, the article mysteriously disappeared from the Telegraph’s website – as did the accompanying picture of the family, which turned out to be a stock photograph previously used to promote a dental surgery in Delaware, the University of California’s Center for Child Anxiety, and a Holiday Inn in Singapore.

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