John Swinney is "terrified" of upsetting the Greens in a row over whether foreign nationals without leave to remain should be allowed to stand in Scottish elections, a former SNP minister has claimed.
The First Minister last night ruled out reviewing legislation passed unanimously by MSPs in 2024 that allows candidates to run for Holyrood or local councils even if they do not have permanent residency in the UK.
Rule 'runs ahead of public want'
It comes after the Record first reported that members of the Scottish Parliament's standards committee had warned the rule "appears to run ahead of what the public want" and risked "undermining trust in the democratic process".
The law change went largely unnoticed until May's Holyrood elections which saw Q Manivannan elected as a Green MSP - despite only initially staying in the UK on a student visa, which was later upgraded to a three-year graduate visa.
Fergus Ewing, a former Scottish Government minister, said it was "absurd" that candidates without permanent residency should be allowed to stand in national elections.
"While Andy Burnham has rightly banned the Greens from government, John Swinney seems to be terrified even to upset them," the former MSP told the Record. "It’s just absurd that foreign nationals can stand for our Parliament."
Manivannan's status
Manivannan, originally from India, moved to Scotland in 2021 to study for a PhD in international relations at the University of St Andrews.
They were last month given an extension to remain in the UK until 2029.
Manivannan, who has described themselves as a "queer Tamil immigrant", previously said: "This is my home and I’m not going anywhere."
Committee report and SNP response
But two SNP MSPs were among members of Holyrood's standards committee which unanimously signed-off a report warning said the changes had gone to far.
Jenni Minto, a Nationalist MSP and the committee's convener, said: "The changes that allowed people with limited leave to remain to stand for election should be reconsidered. They appear to have run ahead of what the public want and the rationale for making the change is simply not clear."
Until 2024 foreign nationals were only eligible to stand for election to Holyrood if they had indefinite leave to remain - an immigration status allowing them to live and work in the UK in perpetuity.
Asked if he would reconsider the legislation, Swinney said: "We don't intend to do so, no. The Parliament voted unanimously for the provision for foreign nationals to be able to stand for election in certain circumstances. There was a criteria that was not covered, which was Commonwealth citizens, and the Government's legislation is designed to address that anomoly, and we will press forward with that."
Ewing claimed Swinney's reluctance to revisit the issue fitted a longer trend of minority SNP governments becoming reliant on Green votes to pass legislation.
The former MSP left the SNP in 2025 after becoming a fierce critic of the direction of government under Nicola Sturgeon and then Humza Yousaf.
Ewing repeatedly criticised Sturgeon's decision to sign a powersharing deal with the Greens following the 2021 election. The agreement between the two parties was later terminated by Yousaf in 2024, with the fall-out ultimately costing the then first minister his job.
Ewing also called for the First Minister to declare his support for the proposed Rosebank oil field off the course of Shetland.
"Scotland can’t solve global warming," he said. "In fact we produce a tiny amount of carbon emissions - so we are actually irrelevant to this global issue. Had the SNP stuck with principles - and policies under Alex Salmond’s strong leadership - it would not have lost the trust of most Scots".
The Record asked the SNP and Scottish Greens for comment.
