Piddington villagers have symbolically voted to leave the United Kingdom in protest against Labour’s plans to house 1,256 male asylum seekers beside their Oxfordshire community.
Residents staged the vote in an attempt to force the government to acknowledge the impact of the proposed asylum accommodation centre, which would dwarf the village’s population of around 350. The immigrants would be free to come and go as they pleased.
Responding to the result, Reform UK Shadow Home Secretary Zia Yusuf said it demonstrated the depth of public anger over illegal immigration.
“The result in Piddington is evidence that the British people are at breaking point with the illegal migrant invasion”, Yusuf said.
“Villagers chose to symbolically vote to leave the UK in order to force Labour to acknowledge the real human impact that its failure to stop the boats is having.”
The vote comes after Reform UK MPs Suella Braverman and Sarah Pochin visited Piddington earlier this week to stand with residents opposing the plans and hear their concerns about safety, policing and pressure on local infrastructure.
Their visit followed an appeal from 133 local women, who wrote to every female MP in Parliament asking for support. Just four replied, including Braverman and Pochin, while not a single female Labour MP responded.
“When I visited, mothers told me they were taking self-defence classes with their daughters, while fathers said they were worried sick about the safety of their families”, Yusuf said.
He said the dispute reflected growing concern in communities across Britain, pointing to the arrival of 140 immigrants in Portsmouth and the use of the former RAF Wethersfield base in Essex to accommodate hundreds of single men.
“But this isn’t isolated to Piddington”, Yusuf said. “Working-class people have suffered illegals being dumped in their areas for years and the media has totally ignored it.”
Reform UK has pledged to stop small-boat crossings within its first 100 days in government and remove those who enter Britain illegally.
“Reform UK will ensure this ends”, Yusuf said. “We will stop the boats in the first 100 days of a Reform government and detain and deport all illegal migrants from Britain.”
Residents staged the vote in an attempt to force the government to acknowledge the impact of the proposed asylum accommodation centre, which would dwarf the village’s population of around 350. The immigrants would be free to come and go as they pleased.
Responding to the result, Reform UK Shadow Home Secretary Zia Yusuf said it demonstrated the depth of public anger over illegal immigration.
“The result in Piddington is evidence that the British people are at breaking point with the illegal migrant invasion”, Yusuf said.
“Villagers chose to symbolically vote to leave the UK in order to force Labour to acknowledge the real human impact that its failure to stop the boats is having.”
The vote comes after Reform UK MPs Suella Braverman and Sarah Pochin visited Piddington earlier this week to stand with residents opposing the plans and hear their concerns about safety, policing and pressure on local infrastructure.
Their visit followed an appeal from 133 local women, who wrote to every female MP in Parliament asking for support. Just four replied, including Braverman and Pochin, while not a single female Labour MP responded.
“When I visited, mothers told me they were taking self-defence classes with their daughters, while fathers said they were worried sick about the safety of their families”, Yusuf said.
He said the dispute reflected growing concern in communities across Britain, pointing to the arrival of 140 immigrants in Portsmouth and the use of the former RAF Wethersfield base in Essex to accommodate hundreds of single men.
“But this isn’t isolated to Piddington”, Yusuf said. “Working-class people have suffered illegals being dumped in their areas for years and the media has totally ignored it.”
Reform UK has pledged to stop small-boat crossings within its first 100 days in government and remove those who enter Britain illegally.
“Reform UK will ensure this ends”, Yusuf said. “We will stop the boats in the first 100 days of a Reform government and detain and deport all illegal migrants from Britain.”
