A woman living in an Oxfordshire village has condemned what she described as 'overt racism' after residents overwhelmingly backed a symbolic vote to leave the United Kingdom in protest against plans to accommodate up to 1,256 male asylum seekers nearby.
Piddington Parish Council held the non-binding referendum after the Home Office proposed using part of the former Ministry of Defence site at Bicester for asylum accommodation. Of 312 ballots cast, 285 supported symbolic secession, 26 voted against and one was spoiled. The result has no legal force, although turnout was about 92% of the village's roughly 350 residents.
