Leafy village votes overwhelmingly in favour of independence referendum over plan to build massive migrant camp

An Oxfordshire village has voted to hold a referendum on becoming an independent state in protest against plans for a nearby asylum seeker camp.

Residents of Piddington, near Bicester, held a meeting at the Village Hall on July 4 where 175 voted yes to the ­independence vote, and only seven saying no.

Planning permission currently being sought at Ministry of Defence sites in Bicester, as well as Barnham in Suffolk, and Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire, to accommodate 3,750 asylum seekers.

The Oxfordshire site would be turned into accommodation for at least 1,250 single adult male ­asylum seekers aged 18 to 65.

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Now, Parish council chair Tim McNally has welcomed the village's decision and said he plans to take the proposals all the way to President Donald Trump.

He told The Express: "We had an incredible result with almost two-thirds of the village voting, the rest were children and an acceptance of 96 per cent. It was truly astonishing.

"Self-determination is what people want whilst they are being ignored and driven into a corner. This is a ­natural human instinct and reaction.

"The Principality of Piddington, the village that roared, will put together their council and representatives to empower themselves.

"I have been given the mandate from the village to bring together the best minds and attitude to seek the best solution."

Calum Miller, the Liberal Democrat MP for Bicester and Woodstock and the party's foreign affairs spokesman, has reacted with fury to the proposals.

He said: "This isolated site is wrong for those ­seeking asylum and wrong for the villages around it.

"Ministers must pause the plan, publish a full impact assessment and come to Bicester to explain ­themselves directly to local people."

Some 11,884 migrants arrived in the six months from the start of January to the end of June, according to the latest Home Office data.

This is 41 per cent lower than the total that had reached the UK by this point last year, which was 19,982, it is also down 12 per cent on the 13,489 who arrived in the first six months of 2024.

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A Home Office spokesman said: "We are closing every asylum hotel and moving asylum seekers into basic accommodation including ex-military sites.

"This is an important step in ending the perception you can arrive illegally and be put up in a hotel.

"The population of asylum seekers in hotels has fallen by 35 per cent in the last year and by 63 per cent from the peak under the previous government.

"Overall asylum costs have already fallen by nearly £1billion since this government was elected."

Meanwhile, Home Office leaders have faced calls to end "secrecy and confusion" around the plans to house more asylum seekers in former military barracks.

Last week in the Commons, Home Office Minister Alex Norris was asked to say how the Government would allay community concerns if it presses ahead with plans to house asylum seekers across the Ministry of Defence sites.

Mr Miller said: "To my constituents, this feels like a decision taken in secret in Whitehall and imposed on Bicester, with local people treated as an afterthought, warning the Oxfordshire site was "over two miles from the nearest shop" with "no pavement next to the B-road by the site".

He continued: "It is simply not a suitable place to locate 1,250 men seeking asylum."

Mr Norris replied: "There’ll be information we put into the public domain, it won’t change on a daily basis, and that is a source of frustration, I get that, but we will give the best that we can.

"We will do the impact assessments that we need to do along the way.

"I appreciate that the burden of proof is on us to demonstrate that we can do these schemes well and do them safely. I believe that we can do."

Fewer than 170 hotels are housing asylum seekers, Mr Norris also said, "a reduction of more than half compared to the peak of around 400 under the previous government".

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