One of the articles says that they kept asking him if he wanted to change his answers to some of the questions, so it almost sounds like they would have let him in if he'd just said "tourist." You can fly to Britain without a visa as a tourist, but you can't fly there and say that you're taking a job without having the paperwork in order. And that, I suspect, is why this story died rather quickly last summer.
> Once in the interview room Chip told his father that he was told if he changed any of his answers to any questions, he was going to go to prison.
http://gatesofvienna.net/2013/07/keeping-a-little-jew-out-of-britain/