English Village That Voted To Leave UK Says It Could Ask To Join US - Newsweek

The parish council chair of Piddington, an English village with a population of around 350, has told Newsweek they plan to formally ask to join the United States if the British government goes ahead with its plan to house 1,250 male asylum seekers at a site on the edge of the village.

President Trump has made little secret of his desire to expand American territory, suggesting at various points that Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal could come under Washington’s authority.

Speaking to Newsweek, Piddington chair Tim McNally said the parish council would proceed with plans to join the US unless the asylum plan is scrapped, adding: “We know conversations have been had with [President] Trump about this.”

McNally said the Piddington parish council could seek “the support of the United States to become their 51st state” adding that they had written a letter to President Trump and sent a dossier to the American embassy laying out their case.

Parish councilor Joe Marshall told Newsweek he backs the proposal commenting: “It’s a great idea. America have done this before… America have had their independence and civil war and I think for us we are at the beginning of ours. I think going to America and showing them we are paying our taxes without representation in the same way to how America felt 250 years ago…

“President Trump is one of those people that has a moral compass which means when certain things don’t sit right with him he holds our government to account over it. Ultimately this is a topic that’s quite high up in his agenda because it covers both military and also the immigration system…I’m sure it’s something he’d happily grant us an opportunity to join or at least be recognized.”

Referring to the impact joining the US would have on Piddington, Marshall said: “There will be an element of change potentially and I think it could be a quirky change. I went to Bermuda last year and that’s a British territory and it’s got little bits of Britishness around paradise. And I think that’s probably what we’re going to have little bits of America.”

Councilor Michael Nixon added: “We’ve not had direct conversations with the American government but what we have had is a huge huge amount of support from the US, from members of the public. I personally have received emails from all over the US saying ‘we would welcome you’ and that’s really appreciated because that’s just ordinary people saying we recognize what you’re doing. We did it 250 years ago it’s your turn.”

Speaking to Newsweek a spokesperson for the British Home Office said: "We recognise the strength of feeling in Piddington and are listening carefully to the concerns being raised.

“This government is working on a fairer distribution of asylum accommodation across the country, with £1 billion saved in costs since the election. This includes closing all asylum hotels and moving to alternative accommodation, including former military sites."

Newsweek contacted the U.S. State Department for comment via email outside of regular office hours.

On Tuesday, Piddington voted to “secede from the UK and pursue self-determination” in a symbolic vote in response to the proposals. The referendum, which lacks legal authority, had a turnout of 91.8 percent with 285 voting for independence, 26 against and one spoiling their ballot.

McNally said the parish council had been informed in late June of the government’s plans to house asylum seekers at MOD Bicester, a military camp that backs onto Piddington’s playing fields. In a response on July 4, a date deliberately chosen to coincide with American Independence Day, the council organized a preliminary vote asking villagers if there should be a full independence referendum. This passed overwhelmingly leading to Tuesday’s independence vote.

The proposal to transform the military base to house migrants was submitted as an Urgent Crown Development application, a process that allows the local planning process to be bypassed for projects of national importance.

Piddington parish Councilor Susannah Parden told Newsweek safety was the villagers’ chief concern.

She said: “As a woman, and to tell you the views of the women in this village, we are really frightened. You’re here, you’ve seen our village, you’ve probably seen our children’s playing field down the road. The asylum center is there right on it. We know there’s a proposal to put 1,250 men there, we don’t know anything about them. They will be roaming free. So there’s a genuine fear for the security of women and children here because we don’t know what it will be like and we’re not getting engagement from the government.”

Marshall agreed, commenting: “The actual security of the village is not particularly high. We don’t have an awfully high crime rate, the windows are left open occasionally and things like that that are going to have to change…

“Personal security is probably the main concern that people have. We’re a village where we’ve probably got a third of the village are elderly, a third of the village have young children, and we obviously have half the village are female.

“I think the concern we have is that we have a park, we have quite a lot of people that normally will go out on their own walking the dogs. We have children that will go down to the park. That is going to have to change.”

Speaking to The Guardian, Rachel Marsh said she was one of the 26 villagers to vote against independence, adding: “This is just a publicity stunt. It’s complete theatre.”

Appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Today program, UK culture secretary Lisa Nandy said: “We’re not going to change our plans, but we are listening. We do hear the clear frustration of the community in Piddington.”

Referring to migrant crossings in small boats, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said: “Well, I understand the strength of feeling, and that’s something that is across the country, but the only thing to do is to get the numbers down, the number of crossings down. And they are significantly down. They are now at a seven-year low.”

Immigration, and in particular the arrival of thousands of people seeking asylum across the English Channel in small boats, has sparked fierce debate across the UK.

Earlier this month, hundreds of masked men blocked access to the port of Dover in Kent to protest migrant arrivals while the immigration sceptic Reform UK party, led by Trump ally Nigel Farage, has consistently polled in either first or second place across the country.

According to Oxford University’s Migration Observatory, in the year ending September 9, 2026, 27,900 migrants arrived in the UK via small boat, a decrease from the previous year.

Update, 09/17/2026, 8:18 a.m. ET: This story was updated with a comment from a UK Home Office spokesperson.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Daniel Orton and Cristina Diciu.