Paul Givan insists he is an Education Minister for all

The under-fire Stormont Education Minister Paul Givan has insisted he is a minister for all.

He has faced calls to resign, and a motion of no confidence in him as minister has been submitted to the Assembly by People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll after he visited Israel.

Protesters gathered outside Parliament Buildings on Monday morning ahead of the Assembly plenary calling for Mr Givan to step aside.

The DUP minister was criticised over the trip, during which he visited a school and asked his department to publicise it on their social media channels.

Sinn Fein, the SDLP and Alliance have confirmed they will back the no confidence motion, while the UUP has said it will not.

The motion itself is not expected to be before the Assembly until next week, however, it is understood the Opposition has secured an urgent oral question in the chamber on the issue.

However on Monday morning DUP leader Gavin Robinson condemned the reaction as “pantomime and performative politics which does nothing for Stormont or society”.

“Paul has my full confidence, he has the confidence of our party, and we will be, not only in the chamber today, responding needlessly to this nonsense, but also getting on with looking after the people of Northern Ireland,” he told media in the Long Gallery at Parliament Buildings, while Mr Givan and other party colleagues stood by him.

Crowds gathered in Belfast on Saturday to call for Mr Givan’s resignation, and last week teachers’ unions were among those expressing concern about the trip.

The Northern Ireland Teachers’ Council claimed the Department of Education’s promotion of the school visit was an “overtly political and divisive act”, and called for the post to be deleted.

Rival politicians have questioned whether it was appropriate to visit Israel at a time when the country is facing international criticism over its military offensive in Gaza.

Several unionist MLAs went on the “fact-finding trip” at the invitation of the Israeli government.

On Monday, Mr Givan insisted he is a minister for all.

Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster’s The Nolan Show, he described the visit as “incredibly challenging to hear the accounts from so many who had been victims of Islamic terrorism”.

“I think it’s important that people actually acquaint themselves with the facts of what’s happening in Israel,” he said.

He said the trip was organised by the Israeli Embassy and came at no cost to the tax payer in Northern Ireland, and challenged criticism of his department’s social media post about visiting a school in east Jerusalem.

“I would challenge anybody to point out within the statement that was released through my department, any commentary of political nature in relation to Israel. It was entirely non-political in terms of that aspect of the trip,” he said.

“Obviously I am Education Minister, I visited a school and it would seem entirely appropriate that that would be highlighted by the department, but I didn’t use the department to highlight any other aspect of this visit because I was there as part of a wider delegation.”

He added: “I’m not going to be silenced, I am not going to be cancelled.

“People can sign their no confidence motion, Gerry Carroll can lead the opposition to me, and the other parties can fall behind his leadership, that’s a matter for them.

“I’m not going to be distracted from the job of work that I have to do as Education Minister over the next number of weeks and months ahead.”

Alliance MLA Eoin Tennyson also spoke to media on Monday morning and confirmed his party will back the no-confidence motion in Mr Givan over the trip to Israel as well as other issues, including integrated education.

He said there are questions for Mr Givan in his ministerial capacity.

“To engage in that visit at such a politically sensitive time is nothing more than provocative, and the minister needs to account for his judgment as to why he was part of a propaganda mission for the Israeli government,” he said.

“There are serious questions also over the civil service in terms of why the parliamentary resources were used to promote this propaganda mission. There are questions about whether and why no officials were present if Paul was there in a ministerial capacity.

“So, in order to ensure some accountability, Alliance will support the motion of no confidence in Paul Givan, as quite simply, we have no confidence in him, be it in relation to this issue, his hostile approach to integrated education, his mismanagement of his budget and his failure of children with special educational needs in our systems.”