Nigel Farage has predicted that local referendums will “spring up all over the country” after residents of Piddington overwhelmingly voted to symbolically leave the United Kingdom.
Villagers organised the referendum in protest against Labour’s plan to house 1,256 single adult male asylum seekers at a former military site beside their Oxfordshire community, which has a population of around 350.
A total of 285 people voted to leave the UK, while just 26 voted to remain.
Residents have repeatedly raised concerns about safety, policing and pressure on local services. The proposed open accommodation centre, where residents would be free to come and go, would operate for an initial period of 10 years and directly border the village playing field.
Earlier this week, Reform UK MPs Suella Braverman and Sarah Pochin visited Piddington to hear residents’ concerns. Their visit followed a letter from 133 local women to every female MP in Parliament pleading for support. Just four responded, including Braverman and Pochin, while no female Labour MP replied.
“You might think it’s a silly little story about one village,” said Farage, “but it has really caught the national debate today”.
Farage also rejected the suggestion that the vote was motivated by racism, after the BBC interviewed a resident who described some villagers as “bigoted” and “xenophobic”.
“This is far better than turning up wearing balaclavas and blocking roads”, he said. “That referendum was a peaceful protest.”
Warning that the strength of feeling in Piddington was not an isolated case, Farage added: “I wonder whether this is just the start.
“Do you think, as I do, that there will be local referendums springing up all over the country? Because I really do.”
Villagers organised the referendum in protest against Labour’s plan to house 1,256 single adult male asylum seekers at a former military site beside their Oxfordshire community, which has a population of around 350.
A total of 285 people voted to leave the UK, while just 26 voted to remain.
Residents have repeatedly raised concerns about safety, policing and pressure on local services. The proposed open accommodation centre, where residents would be free to come and go, would operate for an initial period of 10 years and directly border the village playing field.
Earlier this week, Reform UK MPs Suella Braverman and Sarah Pochin visited Piddington to hear residents’ concerns. Their visit followed a letter from 133 local women to every female MP in Parliament pleading for support. Just four responded, including Braverman and Pochin, while no female Labour MP replied.
“You might think it’s a silly little story about one village,” said Farage, “but it has really caught the national debate today”.
Farage also rejected the suggestion that the vote was motivated by racism, after the BBC interviewed a resident who described some villagers as “bigoted” and “xenophobic”.
“This is far better than turning up wearing balaclavas and blocking roads”, he said. “That referendum was a peaceful protest.”
Warning that the strength of feeling in Piddington was not an isolated case, Farage added: “I wonder whether this is just the start.
“Do you think, as I do, that there will be local referendums springing up all over the country? Because I really do.”
