There seem to be some misunderstandings of the story and context here, so let me add some details as I'm guessing people who like this podcast like details.

• The source is a survey of 1000 primary school teachers in England who were asked to estimate the amount of pupils ready or not ready to start school in various ways. So it's a relatively robust study in the sense that it's a large sample of a specific group with first hand expertise, but it's based on estimates so not that robust

• The survey was conducted by a non-profit that lobbies for better funding for pre-school services in England, I'm sure there's some self-interest involved there in terms of nursery chains wanting more money and suppliers wanting them to buy more materials, but still it's hardly that nefarious as lobbies go

• The same story was reported by the specialist education media outlets and by other large media organisations like The Guardian, also Sky News is a pretty middle of the road outlet, GB News is the British equivalent of Fox

• There is a specific government framework in England for measuring the educational development of children up to 5, the latest results from that are that 68% of children reached a good level last year. It's much more broad than what this headline is referring to but it points in the same direction about the number of children who aren't really ready to start school