I don't doubt that the paper only reported facts that it could substantiate, but we must put the statistics into context.
The last of the four squadrons went fully operational with the Cormorants just this summer. This means that there are still some fairly new to the machine techs.
There were some problems that resulted in out of sequence inspections and replacements. This increased maintenance hours and decreased flying hours.
There was a significant tail rotor incident in the UK that resulted in a fleet grounding for a period of time. The technicians all worked full days, but again the flying hours were kept down.
The numbers initially discussed were produced before any operational squadrons had stood up with Cormorants or EH101s. Doubting the numbers seems an obvious step.
It will be interesting to see how things progress. In a few more years, the MMH/FH should decrease, but to what extent? The only reason its an issue now is either because its a slow news day, or because someone sees an advantage in reporting apparently damaging news on this machine or company. No idea what that could be.