“Up to 15 relatives enter UK for every care worker despite curbs” ran the headline over a two-page news article in the Times on July 7, with home affairs editor Matt Dathan reporting that while just 12 health and care visas were issued to workers from Cameroon last year, a total of 180 visas were issued to their family members from the same country.
Dathan quoted reliably outraged shadow home secretary Chris Philp, who raged that: “Far too many people entered the UK on social care visas and the previous Conservative government [was] right to put a stop to it.
“But [these] revelations show those already here on social care visas are still bringing in large numbers [of] dependants. This must be urgently stopped.” He added that the relatives brought to Britain included “the family of people working in kebab shops and vape stores”.
The paper also ran an editorial the same day headlined “Family Affair: Retrospective restrictions are needed to stem the tide of migrant worker dependents”. “Needless to say, these arrivals, unexpected and unplanned, represent a huge burden on the state, now and in the future,” it said. “That the risks inherent in the visa scheme were not recognised at the time is scandalous.”
Strong stuff: and only slightly undermined by the fact that the story was complete bollocks. Having called explicitly for the forced expulsions of people living here legally, on July 27 the Times was forced to publish a correction – this time, tiny, on the left-hand side of page 22 and underneath a reader’s letter about pigeon racing.
“In a headline and a leading article we said migrant care workers were each bringing up to 15 family members with them,” the paper said. “This was incorrect. The ratio of 15 to 1 was that of new visa approvals for Cameroonian care workers to visa approvals for family members of all Cameroonian care workers already in the UK in 2025-26.
“The same applies to arrivals from Ghana, Bangladesh and India. There is no connection between new visa approvals for care workers, who are not allowed to bring any dependents at all, and visas issued to the family members of care workers who were here already.”
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Whoops! Still, at least the dimwitted Philp is sticking by the story. A video he posted about it to X – complete with an image of the Times’s since-debunked story – remains on his account, together with the message: “1,000 workers from Pakistan brought 6,000 dependents – a staggering 6 to 1 ratio. Many ‘workers’ ended up in vape stores or kebab shops
“Low-skilled workers and dependents are still flooding in – pressuring public services and housing. We must end mass low-skilled migration right now. Enough is enough.”
Will he apologise and take it down? Don’t hold your breath.
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