'Unacceptable': Election of trans Tamil immigrant Q. Manivannan to Scottish parliament has netizens enraged

Q Manivannan, a trans Tamil-Indian immigrant, recently became the first person to be elected to Holyrood without a permanent visa to stay in the UK. The man who identifies as non-binary was elected an MSP on the Edinburgh & Lothians East list for the pro-independence Scottish Greens.

Moreover, 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 along with receiving the taxpayer-funded salary of £77,711.

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. Earlier, foreigners with an indefinite leave were the only ones allowed, but in 2025, the SNP government introduced legislation that meant they could qualify if they had any type of leave, for instance. a short-term study visa.

Manivannan was born in the Tamil Nadu region of southern India and has declared a strong connection with the region’s “significant history of resistance, of social justice, of ecological justice, being inextricable from social justice”. After an undergraduate degree in Delhi, Manivannan moved to Scotland in 2021 to pursue a PhD in international relations at the University of St Andrews.

While Manivannan promised a politics of care, his election has not been welcomed by all. “Britain is almost unique in allowing Commonwealth nationals not just the right to vote in our elections, but also to stand as candidates. Indian migrant Dr Q Manivannan, who arrived in Britain on a student visa, is now a politician in Scotland pushing for the break-up of Britain,” the Migration Watch group tweeted.

"I heard Britain sent more "immigrants" to Scotland than other parts of the UK. It makes sense now. Scottish law lets them easily overwhelm & out-vote native Scots. Replacement theory in action. Scots lost their country," wrote one user on X (formerly Twitter).

"This is the definition of insanity. Since Scotland's laws allow this, there will be many more to come! Pretty soon Scotland will be taken over," claimed another.

"Logic in modern life does not come into play. Not one of the immigrants standing should be anywhere near the UK never mind involved in our politics. I see it in Ireland and in America. Why????" asked one.

Backlash for Manivannan also comes from his past of controversial posts. In one of the posts, he bragged about "unfollowing" Auschwitz on social media and supported the vandalism of posters of Israeli hostages taken on October 7.

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."