U.K. village plans independence vote in protest over migrant housing plans

London — Residents of a tiny English village furious over plans to house hundreds of people seeking asylum in a nearby disused military barracks are preparing to hold a symbolic referendum calling for their community to declare independence from the U.K. and join the U.S. The referendum, which would carry no weight under British law, is being organized as a protest by villagers in Piddington. Residents there have overwhelmingly opposed the British government's plan to house male asylum seekers at the site about a mile away, on a Ministry of Defense property. An image shared on social media by Calum Miller, the local Member of Parliament for Bicester and Woodstock, in Oxfordshire, England, on July 25, 2026, refers to a protest campaign against plans by the British government to house people seeking asylum on a disused military barracks near the village of Piddington. Facebook/Calum Miller Calum Miller, the local Member of Parliament, said the plans for the Bicester Garrison site could see as many as 1,250 people — more than three times Piddington's population — housed at the facility. Piddington Parish Council chairman Tim McNally, one of the leading voices behind the protest campai...