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!

work half a day a week

Don't make up lies. He can work for 20 hours, which is more than half a day per week. When you lie, you undermine the rest of your points.

He can work full time…

Q also describes himself as a woman and as non-binary when he's a man, so I'm disinclined to trust his "Dr" claim.

Q Manivannan has also made racist posts according to a Times of India article (they don't say which platform, but his posts on X are hidden to all but confirmed followers).

In a February 2023 post, he wrote "Goddamn White people," whereas in another from September of the same year he wrote, "Ah, white people at it again."

http://m.timesofindia.com/articleshow/130986902.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Given that most Scots are white, I fail to see how a man hostile to the majority of his constituents can be deemed fit to hold public office.

If his visa has become graduate, yes. If he's still atudent, no. His visa status is unclear.

I’m sure their visa will be sorted out soon - they’re an MSP FGS - if they can’t expedite an impenetrable visa system as a PhD MSP then who can?!! Personally I’m all ears to what they have to say. I believe they’re a poet so maybe they can have some poetry slams in the chamber with the Conservative Rabbie Burns champions (can’t stand RB poetry myself).

It’s going to be so interesting looking at the assembled masses of MSPs. I hope they address the issue of pronouns from the get-go - will they compell all MSPs to use chosen pronouns over sex-based ones? I hope so. I’m sure Alex Cole-Hamilton will say supportive things so that Iris Duane and Dr Q feel welcome. I foresee a standing ovation along the lines of a ‘doing it for Beth’ moment.

And then the Reform MSPs who Swinney will try and ignore.

I look forward to seeing Democracy at work.

They are the minority of visa holders are with NRPF.
As a matter of fact, your example of asylum seekers is incorrect as they DO have recourse to public funds.

I can see that some advice on the university sites is old because this change about working hours only happened this month?

Let’s hope he works out better than “the UK’s first trans MP” did.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjrlp2eqznno

That’s uncalled for Secretsquirrel. Every MSP elected (or ‘selected’) deserves the opportunity to prove themselves to their Constituents. However they present or identify themselves. I’m just interested in how they conduct themselves and in the policies they support, form and enact as MSPs.

I have concerns that those MSPs who lean towards supporting ‘gender’ rights rather than sex-based rights, will cause issues and create policies that are unlawful. I’ll be watching like a hawk for that kind of nonsense. But there’s plenty of young, old, straight, gay/bi females and males who believe in that too.

They are there to serve us.

And by that, I don’t mean serve c**t 😂

No. If he has submitted, which he has, he is able to work full time on his current student visa. He is now in the process of getting a new visa. This is very very normal, nothing remotely dodgy.

No it didn’t. PhDs on student visas have always been able to work FT once they have submitted. The Home Office generally tags a couple of months on to the student visa because of the gap between submitting and the viva. During which time you can work FT.

Is it normal to refer to yourself as Dr before completing your doctorate?

The student told cheering supporters at the Edinburgh count: “My name is Dr Q Manivannan, I am a transgender Tamil immigrant, my pronouns are they/them.

Not at all. For a start, they might fail him.

Not at all. For a start, they might fail him.

That is why I find it extraordinary that he describes himself as a Dr when he is in fact a PhD student.

Tamil immigrant
I though immigrant was a legal status, just because he's from Tamil and in Scotland, it doesn't make him an immigrant, it just means he's a person from Tamil.
I expect his knowledge of anthropology and poetry will come in very handy in coming up with policies to help dig Scotland out of the financial hole it's in.

Well at least the Scottish Parliament have stopped men from using the ladies so no pretending that they aren’t anything but male. Probably come as a bit of a shock to the system for both Iris and Dr E when they leave the cosseting of the University environment.

It’s very relevant. Like lots of women, I used to think this was a progressive movement and feminism-adjacent.

Do you think his other jobs, such as the caregiving teaching and Bluesky poetry, are all done in less than one minute per week?

Yes, people seem to think this is some kind of anti-immigration worry. It’s not. I am an immigrant from a non Western country. I am not anti-immigrant.

Q is not an immigrant. Q is a tourist who has been elected not as an individual but as a Green Party list candidate, to represent constituents in Edinburgh and Lothians East, and has previously posted “goddamn white people” and “ah white people at it again.”

Can you imagine going to Oz or India or Pakistan on a tourist/student visa, and having the total lack of self awareness to publicly slam the majority of the public and to ALSO think you should have the authority to represent them in their parliament?

Well he's not from Tamil, it's not a place, but an ethnic group. He is a Tamil from x country. Which would be fine, should he have ILR as a minimum. I genuinely don't know how he was allowed to stand on his current visa.

Aside from that, the Greens are batshit. Unfortunately someone was elected in the ward next to mine who was suspended post selection but pre voting. For anti semitism that even for them seemed a bit to far. So he's currently in as an independent. I don't think he should have been left on the list either.

Do we he hasn’t had his viva yet? He could well have had it, and still be legally here on a student visa.

Thanks for the correction, all I know about the Tamils are they're terrorist activities, they invented suicide bombing.
I thought they'd been given an area for themselves as part of the peace deal, but I haven't kept up with the current affairs from that part of the world.

Asylum seekers do not have recourse to public funds smarty pants, and haven't done since the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, when the concept of no recourse to public funds was introduced into British law. What constitutes public funds in relation to NRPF is defined in paragraph 6 of the Immigration Rules and does not include asylum support.