A tiny English village has voted to leave the United Kingdom in protest over a government plan to house up to 1200 mainly male asylum seekers on a nearby military base.

Residents of Piddington, which has a population of about 350, voted overwhelmingly for secession in the non-binding referendum.

The results announced on Wednesday night (local time) showed 285 votes in favour of breaking away, with 26 villagers voting against.

“We have given an absolute message, not just to the region, not just to the country, but to the world,” parish chairman Tim McNally said.

McNally said the district would henceforth be known as “the Principality of Piddington“.

The attention-grabbing vote was called to oppose plans to turn the former Ministry of Defence Bicester base into housing for male migrants.

The British government says the site is “designed to be largely self‑sufficient to minimise any impact on the local community”.

Residents in the Oxfordshire village have raised fears about safety, crime and the effect on house prices in the affluent area, 80 kilometres north-west of London.

Bicester army base would house more than 1000 asylum seekers. Photo: Piddington Parish

Supporters called the declaration of independence a victory for people power and local democracy, while others said the campaign had a darker side and stirred up fear of newcomers.

Land at Bicester army base was previously slated to be redeveloped to asylum seeker accomodation more than two decades ago.

The British government spent about £28 million ($53 million) on plans to create a purpose-built asylum centre in Bicester following a 2001 announcement of a major overhaul of the asylum system to speed up processing of applications, according to a UK National Audit Office report.

“In 2005, in the light of improvements to the handling of asylum applications, reduced numbers of asylum applications and rising costs of the project, the Bicester project was cancelled by the Department because it was no longer economically viable,” the report said.

Some backers of the Piddington referendum compared their fight against the asylum accommodation to Britain’s heroic defence against Nazi Germany.

Villager Herbert Owen, 76, said after voting on Tuesday that the independence referendum “isn’t just about Piddington“.

“It means everything our grandparents, our parents fought for. Today is the battle of Britain,” Owen said.

Comparing unauthorised immigration to an invasion has become increasingly common among politicians, including Nigel Farage of Reform UK and far-right groups that have been active in organising and attending anti-immigrant protests.

There have been a wave of anti-immigrant demonstrations in Britain since riots erupted two years ago after a teenager killed three young girls at a dance class near Liverpool. 

Protesters have clashed with police many times, most recently at the port of Dover earlier this month, where masked demonstrators tried to stop a boatload of migrants being taken ashore.

The centre-left Labour Party government of Prime Minister Andy Burnham says it is making progress in processing asylum claims more quickly, so that migrants spend less time in state-sponsored accommodation, as well as in stopping people crossing the English Channel in inflatable dinghies.

More than 41,000 people made the hazardous journey in 2025. But so far this year that number is down more than 40 per cent from the same period last year.

“I understand the strength of feeling,” Burnham said on Wednesday. 

“I will look at the issues being raised by the community and in the referendum, but we have to ensure that we have a fair plan.”

Refugee groups said military barracks weren’t the right place to house asylum seekers, but cautioned that migrants should not be made scapegoats.

“For people who have fled war and violence and come to the UK to be safe, being accommodated in such remote and unsettling environments only exacerbates their sense of insecurity,” Jon Featonby, chief policy analyst at the Refugee Council, said. 

-with AAP