Why are men in balaclavas descending on an Oxfordshire village?

Jon Sopel (0:02)

This is a Global Production.

Emily Maitlis (0:04)

Piddington, tiny village. The government has announced a planned asylum centre.

Jon Sopel (0:09)

You've got an elected MP, Sarah Pochin, essentially saying, come on, Patriot Platform, Piddington is waiting for you.

Emily Maitlis (0:16)

Tommo, the man who got his supporters to mask up and take to the streets of Portsmouth. He thinks that they could probably amass between five and 10,000 people.

Jon Sopel (0:28)

The idea that the good people of Piddington are going to be served by having people like that turn up on their doorstep. They are now the victims and find themselves the meat in the sandwich of a culture war.

SPEAKER_3 (0:41)

For a prime example, Piddington, where the migrants are about to go in. Where they're putting 1,250 in 2 How powerful would it be if 5,000 men, when they know the MO, because we've proven who we are or how our conduct is, we surround that camp, we take tents, we sit there for days and we don't let them get in.

Jon Sopel (1:08)

That is Danny Tommo.

Remember him?

He's the one that organized the protest that brought a halt to Dover. He's the one who led the protests in Portsmouth with all those men in Balaclavas. Now, he's suggesting 5,000 of his supporters descend on Piddington.

Emily Maitlis (1:29)

Yeah. That village of 350 people was worried about a migrant center on its doorstep. Now, it sounds like they've got a whole new headache.

Welcome to The News Agents.

SPEAKER_3 (1:47)

The News Agents.

Jon Sopel (1:48)

It's Jon.

Emily Maitlis (1:48)

It's Maitlis. Let's just give you the context for what is going on in this tiny village of Piddington today where they are holding a referendum. Because the villages there are in Oxfordshire. It's a small, quite affluent part of the world. They are basically up in arms because the government has announced a planned asylum center where they would be putting around 1200 single men immigrants pretty much on their doorstep.

The residents of this village have been saying for weeks really, we're not racist, but we're not feeling safe. We're not feeling great about this. That's going to be a massive influx of people that we don't know.

There's not going to be any women in that center. It all feels a bit too much, a bit too close. And so now the solution has come in the double form, it seems, of Danny Tommo, he of Patriot Platform, and the reform MP, Sarah Pochin, who is suggesting that, yes, his hard right anti-migrant protesters would be welcomed in Piddington because it's now going to be down to them and reform to sort this problem out. Who needs a referendum?

Jon Sopel (3:06)

Yeah, it's so interesting, isn't it? Because look, you know, what you've got there in Piddington is a disused MoD storage depot, MoD BISTA.

And there's been such a hue and cry about asylum seekers being housed in hotels. And you'll remember the furor there was, particularly over kind of Epping Forest and the one, the people staying, I think it was at the Bell Hotel, and the protesters there gathered. And indeed, there was an asylum seeker who was convicted and found guilty of sexual assault, which also kind of magnified this sense that they're all kind of criminals, we've got a lot to be frightened about. And it is understandable that if you've got, you know, 1,256 asylum seekers, all men on the doorstep of this sleepy little village that people will feel concerned about it. And so what I find surprising is that you've got an elected MP, Sarah Pochin, essentially saying, come on guys, the hard right, come on Patriot Platform, Piddington is waiting for you, bring your 5,000 guys down here. And you think, you know what, maybe we should leave it to the police and the forces of law and order in this country to retain order in this country.

Emily Maitlis (4:25)

Yeah. I mean, I mentioned the referendum and we should explain that this is largely symbolic.

Jon Sopel (4:31)

It's not like Texas seceding from the rest of the United States.

Emily Maitlis (4:34)

It is sort of its own version of Brexit with absolutely no effect because around 130 women in Piddington have written an open letter, in other words, a sort of published plea to female MPs saying they face a crisis. They don't want to find this asylum center on their doorstep. And that is why they're holding this sort of symbol of a referendum, which will suggest that they are ready to leave the UK in demonstration of their own opposition to Westminster. In other words, we've had enough. We're just not going to take it anymore. Right? So that's the referendum going on.