The Conservatives and Reform UK said on Monday that Britain should withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to help curb illegal migration.
Conservative Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp and Reform UK equalities spokesman Suella Braverman renewed calls to abandon the treaty during a visit to Piddington, Oxfordshire, ahead of an unofficial protest “referendum” on ECHR membership.
The village, home to around 350 people, organised the vote after residents said Labour had ignored their objections to plans to accommodate more than 1,200 male asylum seekers at the nearby Bicester military camp.
Parish council members said hundreds of villages across Britain had contacted them for advice on staging similar campaigns, raising the prospect that unofficial votes could be held in communities nationwide.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage later pledged his backing to any areas seeking to organise comparable votes.
Labour politicians have not yet said how long the military site would accommodate the asylum seekers if the proposal proceeds. Residents say the move could leave women in Piddington outnumbered by migrants by roughly ten to one.
As the vote approached, with the result due to be announced on Wednesday morning, local people described feeling increasingly anxious about the plans.
More than 20 women said they had enrolled in self-defence classes after police reportedly advised residents to “take precautions” before the asylum seekers’ expected arrival.
Women in Piddington are opposing plans to accommodate 1,250 asylum seekers in the village, which has around 350 residents
Reform UK’s Suella Braverman backed the residents. Braverman is pictured, left, speaking with a woman from the village
On Sunday, women from the village sent an open letter to every female MP, warning: “Our safety, our security and our freedoms will be under threat.”
The Ladies of Piddington told Our News Outlet that just four of the 226 parliamentarians contacted replied: Conservative MPs Joy Morrissey and Sarah Bool, along with Reform’s Sarah Pochin and Braverman.
Louise Brooker, a 51-year-old resident, said Piddington—which has neither a pub nor a shop—could effectively be “on lockdown” once the asylum seekers arrive.
“I won’t feel safe walking along the road,” she told The Sun. “And that’s in the daylight. In winter, when it’s dark by 4pm, we have very few streetlights and they don’t remain on all night.”
“The village is completely pitch black, so effectively we are going to be in lockdown because people will be too frightened to leave their homes.”
Melise Witkin, 59, said: ‘This is not about being rich or poor, this is about safety. People have worked really hard throughout their lives to live in this village.
‘It is not such a rich or poor village. I just don’t think that is a conversation to be had. This is about safety.
‘We are 356 people in the village with 46 children and 1,250 men turning up is a recipe for disaster. People walk their dogs, children play, I just think it is madness.
‘This is about safety, nothing more. Even for them [the asylum seekers], along that road there is no pavement, there are no street lights. We just have to be realistic.’
Another woman, a mother-of-three, said her family’s lives have been ‘changed forever’ by Labour’s decision.
Other residents meanwhile questioned why the Government has failed to provide any data on the criminality of migrants in the UK, leaving locals in the dark.
It came after Piddington’s parish council claimed it was given just 10 days to respond to a 1,000-word planning document for the asylum camp.
The site in Bicester, located just a couple of miles from Piddington, is one of three proposed camps on former military bases. Others at Crowborough in East Sussex and Wethersfield in Essex have already opened to the disdain of many locals.
Asylum seekers are free to leave the camps to roam freely around surrounding villages.
Ms Braverman described the scale of the problem in Piddington as ‘stark’ while speaking to reporters on Tuesday.
A protest sign is seen (bottom right) outside Bicester military camp this week
Chris Philp (right) and shadow minister for women and equalities Joy Morrissey (left) speak with residents in the village on Tuesday
During a visit to the village, she said: ‘This will dramatically transform the character of the village. These are the wrong plans for this village, and you know only harm and damage will come from it.
‘I applaud the efforts of these women to make their voices heard. They’ve spoken very powerfully, and they are the reason I’m here. I stand with them.’
Mr Philp also spoke to residents with Tory spokesman for women and equalities Ms Morrissey, who said party leader Kemi Badenoch had asked her to attend in her place.
He said: ‘The mothers and grandmothers of Piddington are clearly terrified for the safety of their daughters and granddaughters, because we know young male illegal immigrants are disproportionately likely to commit sex offences and rape.
‘Being here underlines how important it is to kick out this Labour Government and leave the ECHR, which would enable us to deport illegal immigrants upon arrival, instead of imposing them on places like Piddington.’
The result of today’s vote is expected to be in favour of ‘independence’ and the hope is that the purely symbolic vote will concentrate minds in Westminster.
The Labour Party is moving asylum seekers into military barracks across the country in a bid to end the use of hotels and cut the asylum bill.
The result in Piddington is expected around 7am on Wednesday.
