This article was originally written in November 2025.
Belfast City Council have passed a motion of no confidence in the Education Minister following a vote on Monday [03/11/2025].
The motion passed by 40 votes to 15, with DUP, UUP and TUV councillors voting against the proposal.
The vote came in response to Paul Givan’s recent six-day visit to Israel.
Tabling the motion, councillor Caoimhin McCann of Sinn Fein stated he wished to “give a voice to the real, palpable anger and disappointment of people across this city at the Minister of Education’s visit to the occupied territories of Palestine”.
The motion also called for Belfast City Council to write to the Department for Education to ask them to remove images of the Minister’s trip to Israel from their communication channels.
Earlier in proceedings councillors from Sinn Fein, the SDLP, the Green Party, and People Before Profit walked out of the chamber.
They did so after Lord Mayor Tracy Kelly of the DUP initially prevented councillor McCann from tabling the motion of no confidence, stating that the issue was not related to the council’s minutes.
Following the walk-out, councillor Michael Long of the Alliance Party tabled a motion to suspend the meeting saying it would be a “farce” to proceed without half the council being present.
The motion to suspend was carried and it took almost an hour for all councillors to return to their seats.
Speaking against the motion of no confidence, the DUP’s Sarah Bunting stated that: “There is no evidence of any breach of the Ministerial code, any misuse of public funds, or dereliction of duty”.
Alderman Sonia Copeland of the UUP also opposed the motion saying: “Fact-finding visits to Israel are not a new phenomenon…this motion is an act of politicking on the backs of those who have been killed”.
Supporting the motion, Michael Collins of People Before Profit claimed that Paul Givan’s trip was an attempt to “sanitise the image of Israel”, stating that the Minister is “not fit to hold public office”.
The Education Minister visited Israel as part of a Unionist delegation which included DUP MP Sammy Wilson and UUP MLA Steve Aiken.
During the trip, they visited a Holocaust memorial, a school in Jerusalem, and received a briefing from the Israeli foreign ministry.