And the hypocrisy doesn’t stop there, as another new Greens MSP is a LANDLORD and rents out her second home in Glasgow!
Scottish Green MSPs Lorna Slater, Q Manivannan and Maggie Chapman
The hard-left Scottish Greens have been the driving force behind the crackdown on both landlords and second home owners in Scotland in recent years.
Boasting about the removal of the cap on the second home council tax premium last year, the party’s co-leader Ross Greer claimed that properties “are being hoarded by a small number of wealthy people who clearly do not need them.” He also raged at Reform’s Scottish leader Malcolm Offord, who freely admits he owns six homes.
But the social justice warrior has now been humiliated by three of his new MSPs who own homes they “clearly do not need”, including the controversial Q Manivannan who is the lucky owner a “luxury” house in India worth up to £250,000!
The “queer Tamil”, who has been elected to Holyrood despite only being in the UK on a student visa, has previously been criticised for presenting themselves as having grown up “starving”, when in fact they had a privileged upbringing.
In their register of interests, Manivannan – a man who identifies he is non-binary and asks to be addressed as “they/them” – declares: “I own a house in India with a market value of between £200,001 and £250,000 from which I receive no income.” Despite this, Edinburgh and Lothian East MSP previously “begged for cash” from Green members to pay for a global talent visa in order to allow them to remain in the UK.
The Indian property market has seen enormous growth in recent years, but in some areas of the country – such as Chennai, where Manivannan is from – average prices are still much lower than the UK. A 97sqm home in Chennai (about the size of a British semi-detached) would cost around £45,000, according to the website Global Property Guide.
But the hypocrisy doesn’t stop there, because new South Scotland MSP Laura Moodie owns all or part of TWO second homes. She declares: “I own a flat in Glasgow with a market value of between £100,001 and £150,000 which generates a gross rental income of between £5,001 and £10,000 per annum.”
While they were in coalition with the SNP, the Greens cracked down on landlords by introducing private rent controls, eviction protections, and limits on holiday lets through the Housing Bill. The Greens have even staged anti-landlord protests outside Holyrood, stating: “Houses are for living in, not for profiting. We’re fighting to introduce measures to stop greedy landlords from raising rents to extortionate levels and protect renters.”
Ms Moodie, who previously worked as an assistant to MSP Ariane Burgess, also owns a 16.67% share of a house in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, worth between £300k-£400k.
Meanwhile, yet another new MSP – West Scotland list MSP Cara McKee – owns a 25% share in a property in West Yorkshire, worth £250k-£300k. She was previously a Senior Library Assistant for North Ayrshire Council.
Addressing Manivannan’s second home in India, Scots Tory MSP Stephen Kerr said: “This further flies in the face of this new Greens MSP claiming to be from an impoverished background. Few people at this age, especially in India, will be able to say they are the owners of a home valued at £250,000.
“Q Manivannan has clearly tried to pull the wool over people’s eyes inside and outside of their party in a bid to get elected as an MSP. They should come clean on exactly what their life was like before politics and how they came to be in a position to own this luxury property.”
In a poem written in 2017, which appeared to be autobiographical, the MSP wrote about being “hungry because I was starved”. They also spoke about being descended from “courtesans, dancers, musicians, hunters, and prostitutes”.
The Scottish Greens have been contacted for comment. Previously, the party has insisted the poem is not related in any way to Manivannan’s upbringing and is instead about gender identity.
