Tiny English Village Votes for Independence From UK Over Migrant Camp Plans

A tiny English village has voted to leave the United Kingdom in a symbolic protest against government plans to house 1,256 male illegal immigrants on a nearby military base.

Residents of Piddington, in the English county of Oxfordshire, voted overwhelmingly for independence from Britain in the nonbinding referendum, with 285 votes in favor of breaking away and 26 against. The village has a population of about 350.

“We have given an absolute message, not just to the region, not just to the country, but to the world,” parish council chairman Tim McNally told the “Talk Breakfast” podcast after the result was declared on Wednesday.

He said the referendum was an example of “democracy in action” and that the district will henceforth be known as “the Principality of Piddington.”

The referendum was called in opposition to the Labour government’s plan to turn the former Ministry of Defense base in Bicester—located about half a mile (0.8 kilometers) from the village—into housing for illegal immigrants while they wait to have their asylum claims processed.

Residents have raised concerns about crime and safety, the cultural impact on a close-knit community, and the effect on house prices in the affluent area, which lies 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of London.

‘We Won’t Be Safe’

The women of the village have released a video calling on female lawmakers to help stop the plans, saying they are being put at risk as residents could be outnumbered by 10 to 1 by the male migrants, as the number of asylum seekers housed on site could rise to more than 3,000.

The emotive video says, “We are mothers, we are grandmothers, we are widows, we are workers. We are worried … we won’t be safe … we’ll live in fear.”

McNally told ITV’s “Jeremy Vine Show” on Wednesday that “only 1 percent of asylum seekers are truly genuine,” referring to a claim made by a Home Office whistleblower in The Times of London.

He raised the question of why these men were crossing into the UK from the safe country of France, and why so few women and children were arriving with them.

“I’ve seen those men throw women off the back of boats, and so have you,” McNally said. “And why is it that when they come to Britain, the crime stats are hidden?”

‘Battle of Britain’ Comparison

Supporters labeled the result a victory for local democracy and people power, with some residents comparing their fight against the accommodation of illegal immigrants to the 1940 Battle of Britain against Nazi Germany.

Villager Herbert Owen, 76, told reporters after casting his vote that the referendum “isn’t just about Piddington.”

“It means everything our grandparents, our parents fought for. Today is the Battle of Britain,” he said.

The government says the refugee site is “designed to be largely self‑sufficient to minimize any impact on the local community.”

As they are not detained, the male asylum claimants would be free to leave the camp at will, with a taxpayer-funded bus available to them.

All Areas Must ‘Play Their Part’

“I understand the strength of feeling,“ Burnham said on Wednesday. ”It’s about fairness across the country … it’s difficult, and I will look at the issues being raised by the community and in the referendum, but we have to ensure that we have a fair plan.”

Zac Goldsmith, a former Conservative Foreign Office minister, pointed out that Piddington is in an area that voted for the Liberal Democrats—an opposition party that takes a markedly pro-immigration policy and champions the right for anyone to claim asylum.

Goldsmith said on X that all three councilors in Piddington’s local district ward were Liberal Democrats, as is the local Member of Parliament Calum Miller, although he noted the parish council was non-political.

Goldsmith said the Liberal Democrat lawmakers voted for their area to become a “Council of Sanctuary,” passing a motion that called for repeal of the Illegal Migration Act and the Nationality and Borders Act, and stated that asylum seekers should be housed “as our neighbors.”

“What did local voters expect would happen?” Goldsmith wrote.

Calum Miller, the Liberal Democrat lawmaker for Bicester and Woodstock, has found himself in a difficult position over the proposal because of his party’s policies. In August 2025, Miller signed an open letter in support of “unity and compassion” for asylum claimants.

In a House of Commons debate on June 29, Miller told fellow lawmakers that Piddington, which is more than two miles from the nearest shop, “is simply not a suitable place in which to locate 1,250 men seeking asylum,” adding that a planning inspector rejected a proposal to host half that number there in 2003.

The villagers have garnered high-profile supporters, including Elon Musk, who posted on X on July 25: “What has happened to towns who did nothing to deserve it, like little Piddington village, will happen to all of Britain, unless there is fundamental political change.”

Wave of Demonstrations

The government says it is making progress in speeding up the processing of asylum claims, so that illegal immigrants spend less time in state-funded accommodation, and in working with French authorities to stop people from making the journey across the English Channel in dinghies.

Home Office figures show that more than 41,000 illegal immigrants crossed the channel by small boat in 2025, with the number so far this year down by more than 40 percent from the same period last year.

The government has pledged to move illegal immigrants from hotels and rooms in houses of multiple occupation—which are often in poorer neighborhoods—into what it considers to be more suitable accommodation, such as military camps.

Earlier this month, masked demonstrators blocked the port of Dover, in southeast England, where most of the boats carrying illegal immigrants from France arrive. Other protesters tried to prevent a boatload of migrants from being taken ashore in Portsmouth, on the central south coast.

The Oxfordshire migrant camp plans now face a legal challenge over the government’s decision that no full Environmental Impact Assessment is required. Bicester Countryside and Communities CIC has given ministers 14 days to respond to its pre-action letter, after which it could take the case to the High Court for judicial review.