Residents of Piddington, a small Oxfordshire village of around 350 people, are holding an unofficial "independence referendum" on Tuesday as part of their campaign against government plans to convert a former Ministry of Defence site on the village's edge into accommodation for 1,250 male asylum seekers for up to a decade. The non-binding vote follows an open letter from 133 local women to every female MP, warning they would be outnumbered nearly ten to one by the new arrivals, alongside an online video that has drawn more than two million views. The dispute highlights wider tension over the government's strategy of housing asylum seekers in former military sites rather than hotels.

Residents cite fears over safety and a lack of consultation, with one woman describing sleepless nights over a camp just 650 yards from her home, and a parish councillor arguing the planning application contains inconsistencies but can bypass normal scrutiny as an "Urgent Crown Development." Votes will be counted on Tuesday evening, with results announced Wednesday morning, a day before the official consultation closes. The Home Office says it is closing all asylum hotels, using sites such as Wethersfield and Crowborough, and has saved over £1 billion in asylum support costs since the last election, while Andy Burnham has said "middle-class areas" like Piddington should share the burden.