Village in South-East England votes to symbolically leave U.K. over asylum-seeker housing plan

A tiny village in the south-East of England has symbolically “voted” to leave the U.K. in protest at the housing of asylum-seekers at a nearby military site.

Residents in Piddington, Oxfordshire, have been angered by a U.K. Home Office plan to accommodate just over 1,200 asylum-seekers at a site owned by the Ministry of Defense.

The non-binding referendum, organized by the local parish council, saw 285 villagers vote to leave, 26 vote to remain, and one spoilt ballot paper. The exercise has no legal authority, but is a show of local opposition on a hot-button issue.

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

Government minster Lisa Nandy told Times Radio Wednesday morning that the result indicated “serious frustration” at the Home Office and acknowledged that “we do have to share the load” between poorer and wealthier communities.

But she pointed to a backlog in the asylum system inherited from the previous Conservative government, and pointed out that since 2024 decisions on asylum claims have been sped up, a move that should reduce the need for temporary accommodation while people’s claims are processed.

Nandy added: “[We’ve had] record numbers of removals [of failed asylum-seekers]. And we saw the small boat crossings [of the English Channel] fall this summer for the first time. So we are working very hard to get a grip on the asylum chaos that we inherited.”

Some local residents have expressed concern that their village has become a flashpoint for a wider political battle. Far-right activist Danny Tommo has suggested that followers of his Patriot Platform group could descend on the village to stop asylum-seekers should the government press ahead.

One resident, Rachel, told the BBC Tuesday that she had “never experienced the level of overt racism that we’re witnessing.”

Opposition political parties have been swift to leap on the row over Piddington. Reform UK MPs Suella Braverman and Sara Pochin visited the village prior to the referendum.

Braverman said people in Piddington were “terrified” and that no one “is listening to their voices.”

“For Labour, open borders are a project,” Pochin argued, “They’re a problem for everybody else — and a particularly large problem looming here for the residents of Piddington.”

Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch also seized on locals’ concerns in Piddington, warning last month in the Daily Mail newspaper that the village becoming independent was “only slightly less absurd” than the government forcing it to accept four times its population.

The symbolic independence of Piddington will have little practical impact, but locals have already suggested taking the stunt further by renaming the village or electing new leaders.