Head of Piddington parish council’s stark threat to Andy Burnham after asylum camp was rubber stamped… while Reform’s Zia Yusuf made a fool of himself

‘We will not stop. We will not accept it.’ 

Those were the defiant words of Tim McNally, chairman of Piddington Parish Council, who accused the Government on Friday of ‘deceit, lies and manipulation’ after Housing Secretary Angela Rayner approved planning permission for an ‘asylum accommodation camp’ next to the local playing field.

Two months ago, residents of the Oxfordshire village made international headlines after voting in a symbolic referendum – by 285 to 26 – to declare ‘independence’ from the UK, such was their anger over the plans announced in June.

But the protest vote fell on deaf ears in Westminster. 

The Bicester Ministry of Defence site – which has no running water, electricity or working sewage system – is set to house 1,256 male migrants and will be open for at least a decade, at a cost to the taxpayer of around £1.25billion.

Migrants will outnumber locals in this secluded village – population 350 – by four to one, and local women by eight to one.

In a barnstorming speech outside the Village Hall on Friday, McNally vowed to hold Andy Burnham personally responsible for any crimes – sexual or otherwise – that might be committed by the incoming migrants.

‘God help you,’ McNally continued, addressing the Prime Minister directly. ‘We will hunt you down… if any one of our residents is harmed by anyone from that site, I will use the Hillsborough Law to come after you.’

Local residents pose with a ‘Principality of Piddington’ sign in the Oxfordshire village following the referendum result, on September 16 

Chris Philp, Shadow Home Secretary (L) and Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s spokesperson for home affairs, (R) debate with each other as they speak to the media outside Piddington village hall on Friday, while Tim McNally, chairman of Piddington Parish Council, (C) looks on

Under the Public Office Accountability Bill – also known as the Hillsborough Law and currently going through the Lords – officials can be criminally prosecuted for, among other things, misleading the public – and the people of Piddington believe the Labour Government is currently doing exactly that.

‘Their own law will be their own demise,’ McNally vowed.

A furious local woman in her 60s told the Daily Mail: ‘They know the risks of placing these young, military-aged men in our village. But they’re pressing on regardless.’

Indeed they are. For this deeply unpopular scheme has been fast-tracked, against furious local opposition, by the Home Office, exploiting a loophole in planning law that allows ministers to expedite projects deemed to be of ‘national importance’, even forgoing Labour’s beloved ‘environmental assessments’.

Campaign group Wrong Plan Wrong Site has since appealed for a judicial review at the High Court, arguing the Government must adhere to environmental regulations. The case is backed by Cherwell District Council.

Parish Council chairman McNally has meanwhile vowed to pursue every other available legal avenue to stop the Government’s ‘abuse of power’.

The Home Office said: ‘Planning permission allows us to continue to progress the use of MoD Bicester. However, a final decision to proceed is yet to be taken.’

On Thursday evening, McNally was celebrating his 61st birthday and enjoying a ‘meat feast’ pizza and bottle of wine at the Aamore Italian restaurant in nearby Thame with his partner, Christina, when he heard the news that Rayner had rubber-stamped the plans. 

A car passes a sign opposing the Asylum Centre near Piddington, north-west of London, on Friday, where the government plans to accommodate around 1,200 asylum seekers

An aerial view of Piddington, with the MoD Bicester site in the background

He wolfed down his final slice and was live on the TV news by 9pm.

‘There will be security and CCTV on site, but not in the village,’ he told the Mail. ‘There will be fights. Some might even arm themselves, and take those weapons out into the village.’

There are concerns that the site – which will cost about £256million to get up and running – is wholly inappropriate for use as migrant accommodation. 

‘The Government has programmed people to believe that this is viable,’ McNally said. ‘But it’s not. They’ll have to rely on a generator consuming thousands of litres of fuel a day. There’s not even running water.’

Perhaps the worst fear in the newly seceded ‘Principality of Piddington’, however, has been the threat of sexual violence, especially in the wake of a string of high-profile rapes and other assaults committed by asylum seekers across the country.

Ministers have repeatedly refused to release data they hold on the number of sexual assaults committed by asylum seekers, despite demands from campaigners and opposition MPs.

Many of the members of the ‘Women of Piddington’ – a separate protest group within the village who were out in force yesterday – have taken up self-defence classes, having previously written to every female MP declaring: ‘Our safety, our security and our freedoms will be under threat.’

Victoria Hubbocks, 32, a mother of three boys, told the Mail: ‘We’re not going to tolerate this. My youngest is four, my eldest is 11. So the ten-year lifespan of this ‘temporary’ site would be their whole childhood. 

‘They should be able to run across the road and see their friends. Now we won’t be able to let them out of our sight.’

Victoria – a central figure in the Women of Piddington movement – is keeping up morale by hosting regular wine nights. ‘We’re doing a lot of fundraising, we’ve been to Westminster, we’re still doing self-defence classes,’ she says.

For the women, perhaps what stings the most is that planning permission has just been granted by Angela Rayner, who promised before Labour took power to ‘halve the level of violence against women and girls’.

Victoria insists: ‘Now she’s effectively saying women’s safety doesn’t matter. We’re being treated like collateral damage.’

Mother-of-two Claire Brenner said: ‘I live here. This is my town. I adore this place.’ 

She has been hard at work on the various legal challenges, looking to thwart the Government’s plans.

‘I’ve been looking for evidence of bats,’ she revealed. ‘An independent expert has confirmed there could be a rare bat species here of ‘international importance’. 

The habitat regulations require [ministers] to look at the impact on the conservation status of these bats. They haven’t done that. So it’s wide open for a legal challenge. Game on!’

A security guard stands by the gate outside a former Ministry of Defence (MoD) facility in Piddington, northwest of London, on Friday

To Claire’s claims of rare bats can be added suggestions made two months ago that great crested newts – which have thwarted many a development over the years – might be nesting in the area.

Late yesterday morning Conservative Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp and his Reform UK counterpart Zia Yusuf addressed the crowds – before clashing in a heated exchange picked up by the cameras.

Yusuf accused the Tories of failing over immigration while in office. Philp responded by accusing Yusuf of political point-scoring. To cheers from the crowd, he told Yusuf: ‘Read the room and pipe down.’ 

‘The Government has ignored local people,’ Philp told the Daily Mail. ‘I’m disgusted that Angela Rayner has abused her powers to impose illegal immigrants on Piddington. Using emergency Crown planning powers to force a camp for 1,200 males on a tiny rural village is sickening.

‘The Government should leave the ECHR so illegal immigrants can be rapidly deported.’

In a statement, Downing Street said: ‘We have saved £1billion in asylum costs since the election. We are closing costly, inappropriate asylum hotels and moving to other forms of accommodation, including former military sites.

‘They are designed to be self-contained with 24/7 security and CCTV to minimise the impact on the local community.

‘As the Prime Minister has said, we do not want a situation where only the poorest communities receive all of the dispersals of refugees and asylum seekers.’

But while the Government talks about disposals, the people of Piddington – and Britain – are increasingly talking about deportations. 

Perhaps, should Andy Burnham indeed be held criminally responsible for whatever crimes might – God forbid – take place in Piddington, he could one day regret taking on this proud village in the heart of England.

READ MORE: The great Piddington betrayal: Rayner presses ahead with plans for migrant camp – with villagers who voted to leave the UK in protest ignored