Trans Green Party candidate with no British visa elected to Holyrood

[IwantToRetire]

Q Manivannan, who identifies as non-binary, was elected as an MSP on the Edinburgh & Lothians East list for the pro-independence Scottish Greens.

It was reported earlier this week that the former PhD student has appealed to colleagues for £2,089 of funding for a temporary graduate visa.

This would give the anthropologist and poet a further three years to work and live in the UK, picking up the taxpayer-funded MSP salary of £77,711.

Manivannan is said to have told colleagues this would help buy time to save up the £5,047 cost of applying for a global talent visa, the UK immigration category for promising individuals in specific sectors.

The self-described “queer Tamil immigrant” was only able to stand in the election after SNP ministers loosened the rules over who could be a Holyrood candidate.

Full article https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/05/09/trans-green-party-candidate-migrant-elected-holyrood/
And at https://archive.is/LhZYy

Reform couldn't have dreamed for a better headline!

I don't think this says anything about the voters in Scotland tbh, except that they decided that the Green Party was worth their support. Q was elected on the list system, and he was the third candidate on the Green Party list in that area. A list vote is for the party, not a particular candidate and I don't think anyone expected the Greens to return three list candidates in that area (including the Green Party themselves) - it's quite unprecedented. I heard Q speaking in the run up to the election and he was quite open about the fact he had no recourse to public funds so I did wonder whether he was actually entitled to work in the UK. Having checked out his position I didn't expect him to be elected. I'm sure that Reform will raise this in the parliament and it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

The voters were Green voters. The views of Reform are as relevant to Green voters as the views of the Greens are to Reform voters. The fact that some people voted for Greens on the constituency vote where Duane was on the list doesn’t mean that plenty of others don’t have an issue with him.

Yes, in a mild misquotation from the traditional blue, they'd have voted for a pig if you put a green rosette on it.

I'm just curious as to the logical conclusion of worrying about what Reform thinks of every candidate - should we just not have any trans, non-British or non-white MPs because Reform might not like it?

I think we shouldn't have MPs without settled status as a minimum. Trans, immigrant, no issue whatsoever. But he is on a student visa, and I don't think he should have been able to stand.

I think that's a valid discussion but doesn't seem particularly on-topic for the feminism board.

This is exactly right. With the list system you vote for a party rather than an individual and the list votes are allocated across the parties using a formula that takes into account who has won constituency seats. Each party has a list of candidates and depending on how many votes they get their 1st, 2nd, 3rd candidate may get a seat. There is very little focus on the list candidates in the campaign and most people make their decision on who to use their list vote for based on the party leader or local constituency candidate. In previous elections the Green Party have never had three people elected from any of their lists across the 8 regions. They have had two elected in this region before, but given they successfully targeted a constituency seat in the same area, there was a significant swing towards the Greens this time. I bet that no one really expected Q to be elected, in which case his visa issue would have been academic.

I see what you're saying, and sort of agree. However in this case, I feel his transness, into which he is putting precisely no effort, is merely part of his visa based grift. A trans candidate who looked like they'd be good at the job, no issue. In this case, the transness seems to me to be another late onset case, in this situation residency and financial rather than prison based, so does fit on this thread. He's using it as a way into a Green seat, and power. How very male of him.

He is a man of many issues, none of them good.

Oh, so when you said "trans, immigrant. no issues whatsoever" in your earlier comment, you didn't actually mean that you had no issues with their being trans.

I'm just confused by the rest of your comment. I don't know any of their personal history, but google tells me they're not even 30 yet so it can't be that "late onset". I'm also curious as to what level of effort do you think someone should be putting into being trans and what do you think that should look like? Do you think everyone who takes steps towards becoming an MP and the power that entails is exhibiting "male" behaviour?

Wasn’t it you who brought up Reform’s opinion? I don’t think their view is more important than anyone else’s and nobody else has suggested that either. I’m pointing out that saying ‘Reform’s views don’t matter because people voted for Duane’ isn’t quite right.
Not many people voted for Duane.
And one party’s views of opposing parties’ candidates are generally not going to be favourable, whatever side anyone is one.

I meant a trans person who has some credibility towards being an MP, that's ok, of course it is. Mild issue with the delusion re their self perception maybe leaking into an inability to see reality in general, but if they had credibility on their cv re being able to do the job, they could have my vote.

This man doesn't.

Late onset, late in his life so far, I suspect. He's not even trying visually. But he knows the Greens will lap it up and put him on the candidate list as they are captured. So he goes for it. Grifter, as I said. It's his route to a visa, as he'll now claim being an MSP is a skilled job, which, as we can see from previous experience, it isn't.

No, I was responding to the OP who said "Reform couldn't have dreamed for a better headline."

Reform and the Greens are becoming two cheeks of the same arse as far as 8 can see.

To think I stood as a Paper candidate for them 20 years ago. Mind you, that's when they had principles and I was doing a favour to a friend. I beat the Tory though, still a proud moment even if I didn't get elected, which I didn't really want to be...

It’s the kind of headline Reform use to recruit support, that’s obvious. Doesn’t matter that Green voters are happy with these candidates. Green voters are not Reform’s target market.

Saying you’re non-binary is a free pass to being ‘trans’ because nobody can say what it means or looks like.

Though, the prevailing view amongst activists is that no kind of trans needs anything more than just saying the words. There is no situation where you can say ‘you’re not trans, because… ‘

I'm surprised that it's possible for a foreign national to stand in an election, to be honest. My late father was a WW2 Displaced Person and was ineligible to vote in even council elections in Scotland, even with indefinite leave to remain, until he received his naturalisation papers in 1969.

I'm assuming that there's been no change in the rules for Westminster elections?

"Late in his life so far" doesn't really mean much, especially if you only suspect it and don't actually know how long they've ID'd as trans. As it is, they're not far over 25 which is the age the brain matures, as per Cass's recommendations etc people shouldn't be contemplating transition before this age.

What does "trying visually" entail to you? Make-up? Dresses? From what I can see from photos, they have long hair and like brightly coloured suits - their look isn't hyper-feminine but wouldn't look out of place on a female MP. I don't think it's fair to require trans people to perform exaggerated hyper-femininity in order to be taken seriously, especially since they'd then be criticised - probably by the same people - for reducing femininity to stereotypes.

But he knows the Greens will lap it up and put him on the candidate list as they are captured. So he goes for it. Grifter, as I said.

I'm sorry but I'm really not clear on how or why you think this would look any different for someone who was by your standards "genuinely" trans or has credibility or however you want to phrase it. You seem to have just assumed this person is a grifter and are back-engineering the evidence.

And you have assumed he isn't.

And no one has ever explained genuinely trans adequately.

I see a man, with no right to be here past the lifetime of his PhD at present, latching onto the only party that would take him. Asking for funding for his next visa....

What qualifications do you think he has that would make him a good MSP?

The fact that this person is claiming to have a trans identity is irrelevant, in my opinion. However, I don't think that someone who is only in Scotland on a student visa should be able to vote on Scottish legislation.

I spent time abroad as a student, and I can't imagine having the conceit to stand for election in another country without first taking steps to secure citizenship.

What does ‘trans’ mean you? He says he’s non binary as it happens. Why would you expect that to involve long hair and brightly coloured clothes?
Trans is a feeling, isn’t it? Why would that be of any interest to anyone else?

It may well be, and it may well appeal to the kind of person who thinks candidates being trans, non-white, immigrants, or god forbid all three, is a problem, but what I'm really not clear on is why we should care. Any MP who belongs to any kind of minority group, let alone more than one, is going to receive some hate for it, doesn't mean we should let that hate dictate who gets to stand as a candidate. As I said above, I don't get what the logical conclusion is - should we only stand white straight British males as MPs lest Reform god forbid get a nasty headline out of it, and who would actually benefit from that if we did?

Actually, I take back what I said about the claimed trans identity being irrelevant. I suspect that you're right - it was used to secure the nomination.

Nevertheless, I'm setting that aside in this context. The main issue is that he doesn't have the right to remain in the country and his election should be overturned in favour of the next person on the list.

I would say he wouldn’t be able to qualify for a student visa either unless he/she is studying full time which might be impossible if working FT as an MP.

I didn't say I expected it to involve long hair and brightly coloured clothes, I was describing Q's presentation as I'd seen it in photographs, since @murasaki (who I was responding to) seemed to think it was relevant. It was @murasaki who criticised them for not "trying visually", perhaps you should ask her what she thinks a trans person should look like or why it's of interest to her.

No, ideally we would have competent candidates. Who actually want to do the job and would be good at it. I do not believe he is one.