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Unchecked asylum seekers who could be murderers may end up being given “more freedom” and rights than villagers living next to proposed camps, Kemi Badenoch has warned.

The Tory leader met more than 40 campaigning women from Piddington yesterday as Labour ploughs on with plans to put 1,200 migrants next to the picturesque Oxfordshire village.

And Mrs Badenoch accused Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood of sparking a safety crisis for women.

She said villagers fear their lives “will be at risk”, with many considering “how we will go about our everyday lives”, including by learning self-defence and refusing to go out at night.

The Conservative leader told the Express: “We can’t detain them unless we leave the European Convention on Human Rights.

“When I talk about us leaving that convention, people assume, ‘oh, that means you don’t want human rights’.

“Of course we do, but let’s put that into our own legislation in a sensible way, not in a crazy way where people could arrive here—they could be murderers, we don’t know—and then they’re just allowed to roam the streets.

“They’re almost, in a certain sense, given more freedom than actual citizens of the country. And who has to pay the price? It is the residents of Piddington.

“The women of Piddington are showing that this is not just an immigration issue; this is a women’s issue, this is a safeguarding issue. People will not be safe.”

Villagers in Piddington, near Bicester, voted last Tuesday to become independent from the UK over Home Office proposals to house up to 1,256 male asylum seekers at nearby MoD Bicester.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he understands the village’s “strength of feeling” but there needs to be fairness across the country.

Mother-of-three Gina Perkin, who spoke to Mrs Badenoch at a meeting yesterday morning, said: “Everyone’s lives will be changed for the worse. I think we’re going to have to look at how we increase our security, how we go about our everyday lives, and how our lives won’t be recognisable as they are today.

“Our lives will be at risk. We don’t know who these people are, we don’t know why they’re here, we don’t know how long they’ll be here for”.

Villager Melise Witkin said: “We are a community, and I think that will change dramatically if we are scared to go out.

“There’s absolutely no way I’d go out on my own and walk my dogs. I also have horses, so for me, I have to go down to the stables and do my horses, often on my own. I have barns down there, and stables that aren’t used.

“I would be terrified if I was on my own. So, it’s life-changing.”

Organised walks held at night are already being moved to before sunset, the Express understands.

Dozens of women who gathered in Piddington Village Hall told Mrs Badenoch that police officers advised residents to “run and hide” if they fear being attacked.

A stunned Mrs Badenoch said: “Police said run and hide?

“If a police officer said that, I’m sure this would have been a very junior police officer. It means that they’re concerned as well. They know that there’s a problem.

“And if local police are saying that, then more senior police officers should be talking about what they’re going to be doing in order to sort that out.”

The Conservative leader told the meeting in Piddington Village Hall she was particularly concerned no one “is watching and monitoring” asylum seekers. She said migrants should only be housed “near where there are police”, with thousands set to be held in former military bases allowed to leave whenever they like.

Mrs Badenoch added: “They can come and go as they please, and I don’t think that that is right. I think that we need something stronger.”

She warned that Labour’s asylum crisis is now bigger than an “immigration issue”, because it is now about women’s safety.

“We wouldn’t put an open prison out here [full] of UK criminals”, the top Tory said.

“Knowing that there will be a criminal element—it won’t be all of them, but knowing that there will be, and that nobody knows who they are, their identities aren’t being verified, you don’t know their background or history.

“It’s a huge safeguarding issue.

“We need the places where we do house these people to be far away from where there’s—you know, where there are vulnerable communities. They need to be near where there are police, and they need to be supervised, not just left to their own devices.”

And the Tory appeared to challenge Nigel Farage over immigration, hinting she’d be able to deport more migrants faster.

She said: “We would look at the place where we can get the biggest bang for our buck, because what the public will want to see is this stuff happening pretty much immediately once we’ve left the convention.

“Parties like Reform say it’ll take five years. It doesn’t need to take that long if you’ve got an actual plan. I think they want to work it out after they win an election; we’ve got a plan right now.”

In a symbolic referendum last week, held as part of a protest against the plans, the village’s residents voted to exit the United Kingdom by 285 votes to 26, majority 259.

The women leading the fight against Labour’s plans received a boost when a veteran wrote to them declaring that a “very able force” of former personnel could rally around towns and villages to “give a little consoling factor to our women and children”.

A letter seen by the Express from Malcolm Vickers, a veteran of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, stated: “Ladies, I would like to humbly suggest to you that a very able force of our veterans is more than ready and able to form a means to help out in our towns and villages of England, even if only a visible presence to give a little consoling factor to our women and children.

“I am also our regimental standard bearer, and as such, come into contact with thousands of veterans. They all have the same message: send them back.”