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!

What a stupid comment.

Its a feminist board because feminist want to discuss with other feminists on any number of issues what other feminists think.

Makes me wonder why you are on the board.

It is absolutely necessary that any issue is viewer through feminists eyes.

Honestly, sometimes I wonder about basic understanding.

Well quite. 20 plus years of university admin and working on UKVI audits tells me that 20 hours per week is the max allowed. And that he can't go part time on the PhD. He could take a break in studies, but that's another visa complication.

Off thread topic but definitely relevant for women and girls was that Pam Gosal wasn’t re-elected, I’m not Tory but she was a good Conservative MSP and a loss to the Scottish Parliament in my view.

A quick Google has shown me that he's not even entitled to vote in council or Scottish Parliament elections at the moment, given his lack of settled status. It's ridiculous that he was on the Greens' list.

He's not a viable candidate whatever he looks like. But he got a Green place on the list, and then got voted in, I'd bet a pound to a penny, by claiming to be trans. In what way is he not just another entitled man who wants power and a visa? He's taking the mick, and you know it.

Seriously, what planet are you on.

It is a valid comment about how Reform reacts to certain people.

Are you in touch with UK politics.

Much as I dislike Talk TV type commenting, one think surely any one who is sentient must have understood is how Reform looks for headlines like this.

Dear, oh dear.

Sorry to quote myself, but I thought and still think the same about Nadia Whittome. So it's not a trans thing re him, it's a competency thing.

I've assumed they aren't grifting because there's no evidence that they are, which is far more reasonable than deciding someone is grifting then trying to engineer the evidence to fit the conclusion you've already come to.

And no one has ever explained genuinely trans adequately.

Hmm, so we've gone from you saying them being trans isn't an issue, to you saying actually their transness is an issue because they're not the kind of trans that has "credibility" or "visually tries", and now we seem to be moving towards an admission that actually no kind of trans MP would actually be okay by you.

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

Not being a Scottish voter, I haven't done any research on their background. But I'm not sure I should have to answer a question from you when you haven't answered the question I asked you - What did you mean by "trying visually"?

Sorry, cant find the post that someone made about their father not being allowed to stand.

I had assumed and I maybe wrong, that his validity is that he is a Commonwealth citizen.

??

I'm reminded of the seemingly eternal students that we had when I was at uni in the late '70s, early '80s. They'd get involved in student politics so that they could get a sabbatical and stipend which meant that they didn't actually have to study and graduate.

Another Jim Murphy in the making?

ETA Link added for those too young to get the reference.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Murphy

So what's your proposed solution? Other parties should not stand any MP that Reform might possibly disapprove of? Perhaps all MPs should just become Reform MPs, since that's surely the only way to avoid any possible criticism from Reform.

You need to Google again - these are the stricter rules for England

Can a Commonwealth citizen register to vote?Qualifying Commonwealth citizens are entitled to register as Parliamentary and as local government electors provided that on the relevant date they also fulfil the age and residence requirements for registration and are not subject to any other legal incapacity.

Citizens of Commonwealth countries other than the United Kingdom are not eligible to register as overseas electors.

Qualifying Commonwealth citizen
A person is a qualifying Commonwealth citizen if they do not require permission to enter or stay in the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man or they do require permission to enter or stay in the UK but have been granted such permission, or are treated as having been granted such permission.Any type of permission to enter or stay is acceptable, whether indefinite, time limited or conditional.

So does Nadia also "try visually" insufficiently for you?

Thanks to all who took the time to explain the voting system.

And the half of me that is Scottish is deeply embarrrased for not being at least half informed.

Off topic: can you choose a national identity? I have 2 cousins, sisters, one if now living in the Highlands and has a very Scots identity, while her sister lives in the West Country and is very southern English. Have not seen them together for years. I wonder how they get on?!

Might have been mine?

I've just Googled and apparently Commonwealth citizens have to fulfil certain criteria in order to have the right of abode (and therefore the right to stand in an election, unless I'm muddled).

I don't think that this chap qualifies - unless it turns out that he has a parent or spouse with UK citizenship.

https://www.gov.uk/right-of-abode/commonwealth-citizens

India is a Commonwealth country, yes

You were the one who brought up what they look like, I never saw that as relevant, I was trying to ask you why you thought it was relevant, but you haven't answered.

I think it's clear they're damned whatever they do in your eyes. I think you'd accuse anyone trans who wanted to become an MP of the same. Do you think women who want to become MPs are acting in a "male" way?

Nadia doesn't try politically or competently. You do know she's a woman, don't you? Not that it's relevant, she's an idiot.

This man just seems to want a visa and has found a party who will enable that for him given he's decided to change his verbalised self perception.

Oh for heavens sake.

It isn't about me! Or in fact you (hard as you might find it to believe).

It is called commentating.

Just as the media pounced on Polanski for his comments, not just themselves but his time, just as on another thread many are commentating on Starmer's what a newspaper called dug up a couple of old fossils.

Incidences, comments, behaviour influence us all, and sadly probably, so does the media response to it.

I just can not understand how someone cannot understand that saying the headline is a gift to Reform is little more than that.

What a bizzare response.

Well, my dad used to cheer for Scotland against England...Does that pass the Tebbit test? :p

Also: "Aye, see that commentator - Andy Murray was British until he lost the match - noo he's Scottish!"

Sure, let's not be bothered that a non-citizen can run for office.
Let's not be bothered at all.
This is the Greens and progressive left generally snubbing their noses at the proles.
The biggest joke of course is not that this candidate is allowed, but that they're voted in, and the Greens despite years of ID politics on steroids, is under no threat politically.

He qualifies

https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/running-electoral-registration-england/eligibility-register-vote/what-are-nationality-requirements-register-vote/can-a-commonwealth-citizen-register-vote

What is going on on this thread.

Do you really think I was questioning whether India is a Commonwealth country.

I was wavering as my post about Commonwealth citizens can stand for UK political positions.

This is a bit like being in Alice in Wonderland being on this thread.

Or maybe some online situaltionalists have decided to give FWR a bit of a shake up.

They seem to be in their late 20s, which is an entirely normal age for someone who's at the finishing end of a PhD - you're not likely to be any younger than that, anyway, unless you're a prodigy who started university early.

That doesn't qualify him for right of abode unless he has a parent who is a UK national.