Piddington Residents Vote Symbolically To Leave UK Over Asylum Accommodation | Sahara Reporters

The non-binding vote, organised by the local parish council, recorded 285 votes in favour of leaving the UK, 26 against and one spoilt ballot.

Residents of Piddington, a village in Oxfordshire, England, have voted symbolically to leave the United Kingdom in protest against plans to accommodate more than 1200 asylum-seekers at a nearby military site.

The non-binding vote, organised by the local parish council, recorded 285 votes in favour of leaving the UK, 26 against and one spoilt ballot.

The exercise has no legal authority but was organised to demonstrate local opposition to the Home Office plan to house asylum-seekers at a Ministry of Defence-owned site.

Piddington Parish Council Chair Tim McNally told the BBC that the result was “an example of democracy in operation” and said residents had “given a message to the world.”

The proposed accommodation has generated opposition among some residents, who have raised concerns about the impact of housing more than 1,200 asylum-seekers in the village.

Government minister Lisa Nandy said the result reflected “serious frustration” with the Home Office and acknowledged the need for communities across the country to share responsibility for accommodating asylum-seekers.

Speaking to Times Radio on Wednesday, Nandy also pointed to a backlog in the asylum system inherited from the previous Conservative government.

She said decisions on asylum claims had been accelerated since 2024, which she said should reduce the need for temporary accommodation as claims are processed.

Nandy also said the government had recorded what she described as record numbers of removals of failed asylum-seekers and noted that small-boat crossings of the English Channel had fallen during the summer.

Meanwhile, some Piddington residents have expressed concern that the village has become the centre of a wider political dispute over immigration.

Far-right activist Danny Tommo has suggested that members of his Patriot Platform group could travel to the village to oppose the accommodation of asylum-seekers if the government proceeds with the plan.

A resident identified as Rachel told the BBC that she had “never experienced the level of overt racism that we’re witnessing” in the village.

Opposition politicians have also visited Piddington and criticised the government’s plans.

Reform UK MPs Suella Braverman and Sara Pochin visited the village before the vote.

Braverman said residents were “terrified” and claimed that their concerns were not being heard.

Pochin accused the Labour government of pursuing “open borders” and said the proposed accommodation would create problems for local residents.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch also criticised the plans, saying last month that the idea of Piddington becoming independent was “only slightly less absurd” than the government requiring the village to accommodate four times its population.

The symbolic vote will not change Piddington’s legal status or its position within the UK. However, residents have discussed extending the protest by considering a new name for the village or electing new local leaders.