Why this tiny English village voted to 'secede' from the UK

An English village of around 350 people announced overnight that a vast majority of residents had voted to exit the United Kindgom in an "independence referendum" in protest at plans to house over 1,200 migrants in a nearby facility.

Piddington in central England, 25 kilometres from the university city of Oxford, has grabbed headlines with its tongue-in-cheek breakaway vote.

The village's parish council announced that with 312 ballots counted, 285 had voted to secede from Britain over plans to house asylum seekers in a nearby disused military site, in a symbolic vote with no recognised legal basis.

Residents were handed a ballot paper with the statement: "I support Piddington seeking to secede from the United Kingdom and pursuing self-determination."

The local parish council chair Tim McNally said that the village will now be known as the "principality of Piddington".

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McNally told UK broadcaster Sky News: "For us, it's about proportionality — how does a small village of 350 odd people assimilate with 1,250 males?"

He accused the government of "trying to rush this whole plan through".

The leader of Oxfordshire county council Tim Bearder, speaking to the BBC, warned the planned centre "will be a lightning rod to the far right, who come here to protest" and "potentially attack" asylum seekers.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham promised to "look at the issues raised by the community and in the referendum" but said the "vast majority" of British people backed a government plan to stop housing asylum seekers in hotels and it was "fair" to locate holding centres around the country.

UK culture secretary Lisa Nandy told the BBC a former military base "is a better option for housing asylum seekers" than hotels or rented accommodation and vowed the base would go ahead.

Around Britain, regular protests have been staged against housing asylum seekers in hotels and other facilities.

Supporters called the declaration of independence a victory for people power and local democracy. Some media coverage compared the gesture to the comedy film Passport to Pimlico.

In the 1949 classic, a small group of Londoners discover treasure and declare independence making them exempt from post-war rationing and other bureaucratic restrictions.