Kemi Badenoch believes proposed Bicester asylum camp is a 'safeguarding' issue
The Conservative leader visited Piddington village to discuss the camp with residents.
Kemi Badenoch has said the siting of an asylum camp near the village of Piddington in Oxfordshire is a “safeguarding” issue.
During a visit to the village, the leader of the Conservatives said: “I think this is more than an immigration issue right now. This is a women’s issue, this is a safeguarding issue.
“We have 133 women in this village. I’ve been speaking to quite a lot of them right now, I had a meeting with about 40 to 50 of them, and being outnumbered 10 to one by men whose background is unknown on a site that is not well situated, it’s right next to this children’s park, this is a safeguarding issue and a Conservative government would intervene.”
Mrs Badenoch said the residents in the village had been “dismissed” by the Government.
She said: “I saw a very pro forma letter coming from Andy Burnham to these women and I thought it was disrespectful.
“Not a single Government minister has bothered to come down here and talk to these women. They haven’t been offered a meeting. They have been dismissed.
“The Government tells us that it has a violence against women and girls strategy, but if they’re not taking the issues of Piddington seriously, then I think that that strategy is not worth the paper that it’s written on.”
"Please don't leave"
Badenoch has also told villagers in Piddington “please don’t leave” after they held a referendum to quit the UK.
Piddington residents last week voted to secede from the UK and become an independent state after the Government announced plans to house more than 1,200 male asylum seekers at a nearby former military base.
Meeting more than 40 women at Piddington village hall, Mrs Badenoch said: “I know you had the referendum, the village referendum, to leave the United Kingdom."
“Please don’t leave.”
She said she understood the poll was “just a sign of how desperate the situation is for young people here, for the women here – to be honest, even the men”.