‘I voted to leave the UK’: Tiny English village ‘secedes’ in protest over asylum centre plan

The village of Piddington voted overwhelmingly in a symbolic referendum to secede from the UK, protesting plans to house 1,200 migrants nearby.

Local leaders expressed concerns about community integration and safety, while government officials argued the military base is suitable for asylum accommodation.

The referendum echoes broader national protests against asylum housing, with ongoing policy shifts towards using former military sites rather than hotels.

LONDON, Sept 16 — An English village of around 350 people announced today that a vast majority of residents had voted yes in an “independence referendum” staged to protest plans to house over 1,200 migrants in a nearby facility.

Piddington in central England, 25 kilometres from the university city of Oxford, has grabbed headlines with its tongue-in-cheek breakaway vote.

The village’s parish council announced that with 312 ballots counted, 285 had voted to secede from Britain over plans to house asylum seekers in a nearby disused military site, in a symbolic vote with no recognised legal basis.

Residents were handed a ballot paper with the statement: “I support Piddington seeking to secede from the United Kingdom and pursuing self-determination.”

The local parish council chair Tim McNally said that the village will now be known as the “principality of Piddington”.

McNally told Sky News : “For us, it’s about proportionality — how does a small village of 350 odd people assimilate with 1,250 males?”

He accused the government of “trying to rush this whole plan through”.

“I think what this result shows is that Piddington campaigners have done an incredible job to highlight their concerns about the proposed asylum centre,” the leader of Oxfordshire county council, Tim Bearder, told the BBC.

The council chief warned the planned centre “will be a lightning rod to the far right, who come here to protest” and “potentially attack” asylum seekers.

But Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told the BBC that a former military base “is a better option for housing asylum seekers” than hotels or rented accommodation.

“We do have to house people somewhere while we get a grip on the asylum chaos... and that base will go ahead,” she said.

Around Britain, regular protests have been staged in towns and villages against the housing of asylum seekers in hotels and other facilities.

The Piddington referendum was a play on the British comedy film Passport to Pimlico .

In the 1949 classic, a small group of Londoners discover treasure and declare independence making them exempt from post-war rationing and other bureaucratic restrictions.

“I voted to leave the United Kingdom,” 76-year-old Piddington resident Herbert Owen, told AFP during the vote, saying it felt like the government did not “care” about the bucolic village in the Oxfordshire countryside.

“We have a village hall, a 12th-century church and a playing field—and that’s it,” another villager Ian Darby, 63, said, questioning how the migrants would spend their time.

“It is a takeover of our village, it’s four times the people of this village. They are going to want to get out and about (locally) and that raises serious issues,” he said.

“I’ve lived here, my whole life... I won’t really feel safe enough to walk around anymore,” 17-year-old student and part-time stablehand Dita Jackson told AFP.

According to the government, the proposed centre would be used for a minimum of 10 years to house single adult male asylum seekers.

The “safety and security” of the migrants, staff at the base and the local community would be “of the utmost importance”, it said.

The centre-left Labour Party, in power since July 2024, is phasing out the use of hotels as migrant accommodation, a policy it inherited from the previous Conservative government.

It has vowed to completely end their use by the end of this parliament, due in 2029, turning instead to ex-military bases. — AFP

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皮丁顿村在一次象征性的全民公投中以压倒性多数投票决定脱离英国，以抗议在附近安置 1200 名移民的计划。

当地领导人对社区融合和安全表示担忧，而政府官员则认为该军事基地适合作为庇护所。

此次公投反映了全国范围内反对庇护住房的抗议活动，政策也在不断转变，倾向于使用前军事设施而不是酒店。

伦敦，9 月 16 日——英国一个约有 350 人的村庄今天宣布，绝大多数居民在一次“独立公投”中投了赞成票。这次公投是为了抗议在附近设施安置 1200 多名移民的计划。

位于英格兰中部、距离大学城牛津 25 公里的皮丁顿镇，因其略带讽刺意味的脱离投票而登上新闻头条。

该村教区委员会宣布，在统计的 312 张选票中，有 285 人投票赞成脱离英国，原因是英国计划在附近一个废弃的军事基地安置寻求庇护者。这是一次象征性的投票，没有任何公认的法律依据。

居民们拿到一张选票，上面写着：“我支持皮丁顿寻求脱离英国并追求自决。”

当地教区议会主席蒂姆·麦克纳利表示，该村现在将被称为“皮丁顿公国”。

麦克纳利告诉天空新闻：“对我们来说，关键在于比例——一个只有 350 多人的小村庄如何与 1250 名男性融合？”

他指责政府“试图仓促推行整个计划”。

“我认为这一结果表明，皮丁顿的活动人士在强调他们对拟建庇护中心的担忧方面做得非常出色，”牛津郡议会主席蒂姆·比尔德告诉BBC。

市议会主席警告说，计划中的中心“将成为极右翼分子的避雷针，他们会来这里抗议”，并且“可能会袭击”寻求庇护者。

但文化大臣丽莎·南迪告诉BBC，对于寻求庇护者来说，前军事基地“比酒店或出租房更合适”。

“在我们控制住难民安置混乱局面之前，我们确实需要找个地方安置这些人……而那个基地将会继续建设，”她说。

在英国各地，城镇和乡村经常举行抗议活动，反对将寻求庇护者安置在酒店和其他设施中。

皮丁顿公投是对英国喜剧电影《通往皮姆利科的护照》的戏仿。

在 1949 年的经典影片中，一小群伦敦人发现了宝藏，并宣布独立，使他们免受战后配给制和其他官僚限制。

“我投票支持脱离英国，”76 岁的皮丁顿居民赫伯特·欧文在投票期间告诉法新社，他说感觉政府并不“关心”牛津郡乡村这个田园般的小村庄。

“我们这里有一个村礼堂、一座 12 世纪的教堂和一个运动场——仅此而已，”另一位村民，63 岁的伊恩·达比说道，他质疑这些移民会如何消磨时间。

“这相当于占领了我们的村庄，人口是村里的四倍。他们肯定会想方设法外出活动，这会引发严重的问题，”他说。

“我一辈子都住在这里……我以后再也不敢在这里走动了，”17岁的学生兼兼职马厩工人迪塔·杰克逊告诉法新社。

政府表示，拟建中心将至少使用 10 年，用于安置单身成年男性寻求庇护者。

声明称，移民、基地工作人员和当地社区的“安全保障”将是“至关重要的”。

自 2024 年 7 月执政以来，中间偏左的工党正在逐步取消将酒店用作移民住所的做法，这项政策是工党从前保守党政府那里继承来的。

它已承诺在本届议会任期结束前（即2029年）彻底停止使用这些设施，转而使用前军事基地。——法新社

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