English village votes to leave UK over migrant plan
An English village has overwhelmingly voted to “secede” from the UK in protest over government plans to house more than 1,200 male migrants at a nearby former military base. The referendum in Piddington, Oxfordshire has no legal force but drew nearly 92% turnout.
The result announced on Wednesday showed that 285 residents backed leaving the UK, 26 voted against, and one ballot was spoiled. Organizers staged the symbolic referendum in protest against plans to house up to 1,256 male asylum seekers at the nearby MOD Bicester site.
“We are Piddington, the village that roars,” parish council vice chair Susannah Parden declared as she announced the result. Council chair Tim McNally called the vote “an example of democracy in operation,” adding: “We went into this village hall as the underdogs – we had a plucky idea. We have given a message to the world.”
The ballot asked residents whether Piddington should “secede from the United Kingdom and pursue self-determination,” while signs proclaiming the “Principality of Piddington” appeared around the village. More than 130 local women have also written to female MPs warning that their “safety, security, and freedoms” would be threatened if the asylum center opens.
Despite the overwhelming vote, the government said it will not reconsider the plan. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told the BBC that abandoning the proposed center would be unfair to other communities already housing large numbers of migrants.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham likewise said he understood the village’s “strength of feeling,” but insisted that asylum accommodation had to be shared fairly across the country. Using the former military site is part of the Home Office’s push to move migrants out of hotels.
The Piddington referendum comes as the UK grapples with continued illegal crossings of the English Channel and mounting pressure over asylum accommodation.
Hundreds of anti-immigration protesters clashed with police in Portsmouth earlier this month after a boat carrying around 140 asylum seekers was brought ashore. Demonstrators blocked roads in an attempt to stop buses transporting the arrivals to a Home Office processing center, chanting “stop the boats” and “send them back.”
Some 33,000 people, mostly adult men, arrived in the UK by small boat in the year to July, accounting for around 88% of illegal arrivals, according to government data. A YouGov poll in August found 69% of Britons believe immigration over the past decade has been too high, while 43% said it had been mostly bad for the country, up from 33% in 2016.
