Village votes to leave U.K. in symbolic protest of plan to house asylum seekers

Piddington, England — A tiny English village has voted overwhelmingly to leave the United Kingdom in a symbolic referendum triggered by government plans to house more than 1,200 male asylum seekers at a former military site nearby.

Residents of Piddington, a rural village in Oxfordshire, voted 285 to 26 to "secede from the UK and pursue self-determination," with a turnout of nearly 92%. The vote has no legal force.

Piddington has a population of around 350 people. The asylum accommodation plan would house up to 1,256 asylum seekers, more than three times the population of the village, at a former British military base in Bicester, half a mile from Piddington.

The site would operate as a non-detained asylum accommodation, meaning the asylum seekers would be able to come and go. The proposed development would operate for 10 years, the U.K. Home Office said.

Village residents told CBS News they believe there has been insufficient consultation over the plans and raised concerns about safety, crime and the potential impact on their lives.

The referendum was deliberately held on Sept. 15, Battle of Britain Day, commemorating a pivotal day in 1940 during World War II when Britain's Royal Air Force fought off major attacks by Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe. A banner commemorating the anniversary was displayed outside Piddington's village hall during the vote.

The dispute highlights a wider political dilemma for the U.K. government over where asylum seekers should be accommodated. Piddington is a relatively affluent rural community. Historically, asylum seekers have been disproportionately concentrated in poorer parts of Britain, in part because accommodation there has been cheaper.

Reacting to the news of the vote, Prime Minister Andy Burnham told the BBC, a CBS News partner, that he understood the village's "strength of feeling."

But he has argued that wealthier communities should shoulder more of the asylum accommodation burden.

"We cannot have a situation where it's only the poorest communities in the country that receive all of the dispersal of refugees and asylum seekers," Burnham told GB News .

The government is seeking to reduce its reliance on asylum hotels, the cost of which has become a major political issue, by moving asylum seekers into other spaces, including former military sites.

But, as seen in Piddington, that strategy can create challenges when a large asylum facility is proposed near a small community that has historically accommodated relatively few asylum seekers.

Tim McNally, chairman of Piddington Parish Council and one of the leaders of the campaign against the facility, told CBS News the village deliberately drew inspiration from American history.

"We actually did this referendum … recognizing the United States' 250 years of independence and understanding the strife and struggle they went through to get their self-determination," McNally said.