An Oxfordshire village has “voted” to become independent from the UK in protest at the government’s plans to house asylum seekers at a nearby former military base.
The proposal, which would mean 1,256 people would move into the base near Piddington, has sparked anger among many village residents.
Residents cast their ballots in the symbolic and unofficial referendum on Tuesday. It came after, on 4 July, marking the 250th anniversary of American independence, 96 per cent of Piddington voters backed holding the referendum.
On Tuesday, their ballots were returned into a small box outside the village hall, the community hub of the village of 350 people, which does not have any pubs, cafes or shops.
The result was announced by a returning officer to an audience of dozens of journalists and residents gathered outside the village hall on Wednesday morning.
The people of Piddington voted overwhelmingly in favour of independence from the UK.
Some 285 villagers backed “independence”, with a turnout of nearly 92 per cent.
Only 26 residents voted against the motion, with one spoiled ballot recorded.
A pennant reading Battle for Britain 2026 was hanging outside the village hall, alongside another commemorating the date of the Second World War military campaign, the Battle of Britain, on 15 September 1940.
Piddington parish councillor Joe Marshall has suggested the village could go as far as electing leaders for the new “principality”.
When asked how far the village is prepared to take its “independence” claim, Mr Marshall said it will come down to how much the Government is willing to engage with them.
“The renaming of the village is one of the things”, he said.
“We’ll probably go through and elect some leaders and all that kind of thing to really hammer it home.
“I’ve mentioned to people before about the Principality of Sealand, which is out off the coast of Norwich somewhere, and they have it where they’ve got their own national teams and they’ve got their own stamp and their own symbolic citizenship card and things like that.
“We can really play with it, but I think what we would do more than anything is encourage other areas that don’t support what’s going on in their areas to push for similar things.”
Speaking the while villagers voted on Tuesday, Piddington parish chairman Tim McNally said the vote was about “hope” for residents.
He said: “Yesterday was the anniversary of the Battle of Britain, and for us, it was the battle for Britain.
“We’ve been identified as ground zero for a whole number of issues.
“I just want to say something to Andy Burnham, the prime minister of this great, great country that we’re in, the Speaker of the House of Lords, Speaker of the Commons, Kemi Badenoch, who is the leader of the opposition and all shadow oppositions: this is an example of democracy in operation.”
He added: “On the 3rd of July, when we started this process, we went into this village hall as what we call the underdogs, not knowing how we were going to go forward and actually fight against this plan, we had a plucky idea.
“We had an idea that we would grow as people, and what I consider as definition of done, is this.
“This is definition of done. We have given an absolute message, not just to the region, not just to the country, but to the world.”
The government wants to use the Urgent Crown Development Process, which would allow home secretary Shabana Mahmood to bypass local planning authorities.
On Wednesday, Lisa Nandy said the burden of hosting asylum accommodation should not just fall on “poorer communities”.
The culture secretary told Sky News: “What I would just gently say to the people of Piddington is: we inherited a massive asylum backlog.
“We are getting that backlog down. We’re speeding up the processing of claims, and in the meantime, we don’t think it’s acceptable for all of the burden of shouldering not just asylum accommodation, but also many other forms of temporary accommodation, to fall on poorer communities.
“That’s what we saw under the previous government. Because accommodation is cheap in many, not just towns, but in particular postcode areas, people who live in more deprived communities have had to put up with almost … every other house in some instances… turned into HMOs, and that is not OK.”
A sign reading the village’s unofficial new name was then displayed outside the hall, while a campaign song created by the village played in the background, with the lyrics: “It’s the battle for Britain, and Britain roars.”
McNally added: “It doesn’t matter whether they’re priests or vicars, the proportionality isn’t acceptable.
“Your house value has dropped. We’ve had a number of house deals cancelled. We’ve had banks pull mortgages.
“We’ve had people who’ve got pensions in their properties have to be revaluated, because the value of their property is no longer what it was.
“That’s not about saying this is a wealthy area, this is no more wealthy than any other village around the country, but people work very hard, and they worked hard to earn what they’ve made, and they should be entitled to have what they’ve made.
“But overnight, to have that destroyed, ultimately, is disgraceful, and we’ve had no involvement in that process to determine what it means for us.”
A spokesperson for the Home Office previously said: “The Government is closing every asylum hotel, saving taxpayers over £1 billion on asylum support since the election.
“We are working to fairly house asylum seekers across the country, moving asylum seekers into alternative accommodation, including former military sites which are designed to be self-contained to reduce impact on the local community.
“As part of the process, we engage with local authorities and police forces to ensure the safety and security of those in the surrounding area.”
