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 would say the same about any overseas student who stood at a point where their visa was about to run out. This one merely got himself a quick in to a list. You can see why he went for the Greens.

Also, he's a PhD student. He may be many things but he's clearly not unintelligent. He will have thought about this, and fair play his strategy paid off. For now.

He does currently have the right to live and work in the UK until his visa runs out. You can say he has no right to remain when his current visa expires and of his graduate visa application is denied at some future date.

20 hours a week. I'd expect more from an MSP.

Wouldn’t he start the job after his studies are done and be doing it with a graduate visa?

Aren't they supposed to start the job now? Or shortly not in 4 months time. To be fair I don't know....

I'd assumed it was out and in, as we see with the general election.

It says former PhD student in the OP so perhaps he has finished or taking a leave of absence or dropped out?

But you haven't just claimed that they were standing just to get their visa extended, you've specifically accused them of lying about their trans identity - despite having held since identity for at least 3 years and probably longer - just to get on the candidate list. So no, that isn't something you'd be saying about any overseas student, is it. Nor, I suspect, would you be spending time scrutinising the appearance of just any overseas student and using that as a basis to declare them a grifter because they didn't pass your woman test. You've specifically insulted, targeted and made accusations against Q Manivannan because of their trans identity. So trying to handwave away that you'd say that about any candidate isn't going to wash, sorry.

Doing a PhD doesn't make you psychic. Are you still maintaining they decided more than 3 years ago to start identifying as trans because they had a psychic flash that in 2026 the Greens were going to have a leader who supported trans rights, that they'd be soaring in the polls, and that they'd be looking for candidates specifically in their area? If so, honestly, thank god they got elected, we need that kind of clairvoyant talent in politics.

Oxford University has this advice
“Following completion of their studies, students may work full-time. Completion of studies is usually interpreted as when the final exam is sat or when leave to supplicate is granted. In either case students should not work more than four months full-time on their student visa following completion of studies, unless they have submitted a valid application for a new visa status. Students who complete early and have a long period remaining on their student visa will be reported to the Home Office and their visa will be curtailed. Because this generally takes three to four months, the student should not be disadvantaged compared to those who complete on schedule.”

“When completing a right to work check for an employed student visa holder who is a graduate research student at Oxford you should print and retain a copy of the working while studying guidelines. This is sufficient to employ an Oxford graduate research student (who is a student visa holder) for up to twenty hours per week (along with a right to work check completed online). If you wish to employ a student visa holder who is a graduate research student at another institution, you must ask for written confirmation of term and vacation dates for the student’s course from the institution.
In circumstances where it is agreed between the graduate research student and their research supervisor that they may work beyond 20 hours per week, you must seek written permission from the student’s research supervisor which confirms that the student is considered to be on vacation (specifying the dates), that they are not expected to study or complete any work towards their thesis during this time, and that therefore may take full-time employment during the specified vacation period. You may use the Graduate Student Employment Template Letter to give to the student’s research supervisor to complete as evidence that the student may take full-time employment.”

I know Q is in Scotland, but posting the Oxford Uni blurbs to show there’s wriggle room in the 20hrs/week limit.

But when else would they stand? They can’t stand at the start or middle of the student visa because that would be in breach of the student visa
purpose and limitations. Standing so that work would coincide with the end of studies and the start of a graduate visa (for graduates from UK Unis to work full time in a UK job) is the proper way to time it and stay in compliance with immigration regulations.

I loathe Reform (just to get that out of the way)
I don't think candidates should be trans (they are either unstable or working to a single agenda or both) or non British - I mean come on, surely this is obvious. The colour of their skin is irrelevant.

What Reform thinks about it is besides the point - but, as it happens, my local Reform candidate isn't white. I don't think Reform are that bothered about that either. Bums on seats is what they want. Any colour bums.

I'm not sure if I should congratulate you on being the first person honest enough to just come out and say that you don't think trans people should be MPs, or to just throw my hands up at the transphobia.

And before the inevitable argument starts, yes of course saying trans people should be barred from certain jobs just because they are trans is transphobia, it is the very definition of transphobia.

I haven't checked if the rules are the same but your link is for England.

This is the main page for the rules in Scotland:
www.electoralcommission.org.uk/running-electoral-registration-scotland/eligibility-register-vote

The Green are the No Boarders Party, they want a world where anyone can drift into any place they like, get given whatever they need to live, housing, money, do any job they want, regardless of qualifications.
This grifter seems like a perfect fit for the Greens.

Article in the Times:
https://www.thetimes.com/article/99bb8d5f-0e38-44ec-9be1-008f1a7962f3?shareToken=51458ae977284620203285cb1af238f0&ver=article

But this person does not claim to be a woman. He claims to be non binary. So how would someone prove they were non binary? It has no standing in any law. What is the proof he is non binary?

He’s not an immigrant. Without a visa he’s not much different to a tourist. I think candidates for our government should show more commitment to the country before seeking election! It’s not an outlandish expectation!

England and Wales is a different Green Party. This is the Scottish one and they have had power in Scotland for years. No “psychic flash” needed 🙄

I don't understand why there isn't a right to work check before they stand for election. It shouldn't be possible to get selected as a candidate without first demonstrating that you have leave to remain in the country for the duration of the term.

Back in the mists of time, before recorded history, in 2023.

It looks like he's committed fraud on his visa and therefore should be deported.

Having a guy who's never worked in his life, who LARPs as a "non-man", who was paid by the taxpayer to do a PhD in anti white gibberish, in which he spent most of his time writing about how much he hates white people on Bluesky, now being paid £80k a year by the taxpayer to work half a day a week is absurd, and obviously a gift to Reform and the Tories.

Just deport this man - and do it quickly!

I've lived in several countries on visa (including PhD visa for some of that time) and I never thought this should give me rights to stand for election in a country. I wonder what his career options are with his PhD.

And that you are able to work the necessary hours to do the job.

Farce. How can they expect to be taken seriously as a party?

And yes, I will be interested to see if there is a capacity to care about and serve their community, or if this is merely being used as a place from which to promote transactivism and personal agenda, as experience of many others in political roles, particularly of Izzard trying to get elected, has always been the second.