A no-confidence motion in Education Minister Paul Givan over his recent trip to Israel has fallen after failing to gain cross-community support.

It received 47 votes in favour (58.8%) after being proposed by People Before Profit and backed by Sinn Féin, Alliance and the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).

But it failed to gain the required support from unionists, with 33 members voting against the motion.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) had dismissed the motion against the DUP minister as “performative”.

• 80 voted, with 47 ayes (58.8%)
• 33 nationalists – 33 ayes (100%)
• 33 unionists – no ayes (0%)
• 14 other – 14 ayes (100%)
• Motion falls

Parties supporting the motion said the minister should not have used departmental resources to share images of his visit to a school in Jerusalem.

Teaching unions also criticised the move and called for a press release on the issue to be removed from the department’s website.

Givan told members in the Assembly the motion was a “toxic mix of antisemitism, anti-unionism and hypocrisy”.

Givan said the debate in the chamber had “exposed the ugly face of pan-nationalism and its fellow travellers”.

“This is not principled politics – it’s an attempt at ideological purging,” he said.

“This motion has not just targeting me. It has sent a chilling message to the unionist community that our convictions, our values and our right to engage with the wider world are to be policed and punished.”

The DUP minister said accused Carroll of “trumped up charges” against him.

“We truly are in Alice in Wonderland territory,” he added, as he described how the motion was backed by some who defend IRA actions during the Troubles.

Givan also defended a press release about his visit to a school in Jerusalem issued by Stormont’s Department of Education.

The minister said it was “a request that was quite properly approved at the highest level in the department before it was issued”.

Speaking in the Assembly People Before Profit Leader Gerry Carroll claimed while Givan was in Israel, “he failed to uphold the pledge of office, failed to comply with the ministerial code of conduct and he has made deeply offensive and unfounded accusations of antisemitism because he is in a tailspin,” he told the assembly.

Sinn Féin assembly member Declan Kearney claimed Paul Givan in his trip to Israel was “acting as a prop” for a “propaganda stunt”.

“You do not own the Department of Education. It is the property of our peace settlement and the Good Friday Agreement,” he added.

He said Givan had “not one ounce of humility, compassion or regret for the people of Gaza, or the anger that you have provoked”.

Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) deputy leader Robbie Butler said he could “think of few moments that illustrate our dysfunction more clearly than this one”.

Butler pointed to the controversy in 2020 when Sinn Féin ministers attended the funeral of senior republican Bobby Storey during Covid-19 restrictions on public gatherings.

He said although “rules were ignored” there was “no motion of exclusion” and “no humility, only deflection”.

Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) assembly member Matthew O’Toole, leader of the opposition in the assembly, accused the education minister of a “misuse of his office”.

He claimed Givan’s trip to Israel had led to a “shameless compromising of his civil servants’ impartiality”.

Alliance Party deputy leader Eóin Tennyson described Paul Givan’s visit to Israel as a “propaganda mission”.

“He could at any point have recognised and apologised for the hurt caused, committed to an independent review of his and his department’s action and referred himself to the standards process, but instead he lashed out and doubled down,” he said.

SDLP leader Claire Hanna said Givan had “yuked it up” in response to criticism of his trip.

Speaking at Stormont ahead of the motion, she said it was appropriate for MLAs (Members of the Legislative Assembly) to “have the opportunity to express their constituents’ moral revulsion”.

Hanna said her party, which is the official opposition in the Northern Ireland Assembly, was separately tabling a motion calling for reforms to ministerial accountability mechanisms.

“We are calling on all parties to read the room and to realise how disconnected Stormont is for the average person, and the desperate need to reform this assembly, how it delivers and how it connects with people,” she added.

However DUP leader Gavin Robinson described the no-confidence vote as “performative” and said that “nothing is going to change”.

He said he had “full confidence” in Givan and all the party’s ministers in the Northern Ireland Executive.

“I look forward to the end of today and the ability for the Northern Ireland Assembly to get back to focusing on the issues that matter for the people of Northern Ireland,” he added.

Givan said he would give a “very clear account of all of my activities and why nothing here was wrong”.

He said “Gerry Carroll’s coalition” had shown “double standards” in their approach to his trip to Israel compared to other issues.

A protester was removed from the public gallery during the no confidence motion for disrupting the debate.

As Givan finished speaking, shouts of “shame of you” could be heard from the public gallery.

MLAs from other parties could be seen applauding for the protester as she was escorted out by police.

She told BBC News NI Givan had “no shame and should resign but he doesn’t care”.

The NI Assembly has been asked for comment.

The exclusion motion stated that the “minister of education no longer enjoys the confidence of the assembly, because of his failure to observe… the Pledge of Office, relating to his duty to uphold and support the rule of law; and his failure to observe paragraph (g) relating to his duty to comply with the Ministerial Code of Conduct; and that he should be excluded from holding office as a minister or junior minister for a period of 12 months”.

Givan has said his department’s permanent secretary Ronnie Armour and other senior officials had carried out a review of his engagements on the visit.

Givan said they “concluded that review and gave a clean bill of health, not just to me as minister but to every civil servant in my department that their actions were entirely appropriate”.

On Sunday, Sinn Féin assembly member Pat Sheehan, the deputy chair of the education committee, criticised Israel’s actions in Gaza and called for the minister to resign.

Stormont’s education committee has been looking into the matter and asked the department’s permanent secretary to appear to give evidence.

Speaking to BBC’s The Nolan Show last week, Givan said the trip “came at no cost to the taxpayer, at all”.

The DUP minister was among a number of unionist politicians who took part in the six-day trip, which was organised by the Israeli government.

Others included DUP MP Sammy Wilson, Steve Aiken from the UUP and TUV councillor Ron McDowell.

During the trip, they received a briefing from Israel’s foreign ministry; visited a Holocaust memorial; met victims of Hamas; and toured Ofek School in Jerusalem.

Brendan Hughes, BBC News NI political reporter

Education Minister Paul Givan’s trip to Israel cost its government almost £4,000, according to his updated Stormont register of interests.

His flights, accommodation, food and transport were worth a total of £3,810 and were paid for by the Israeli embassy in London.

In his register of interests, Givan said the trip was a “fact-finding tour” and involved “visiting Israeli Jews, Christians, Muslims, Druze and others”.

He added he was “briefed by eyewitnesses to the murderous terrorist attacks by Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and the Houthis”.

The same costs and details were declared on the register by his DUP colleague David Brooks and Ulster Unionist assembly member Steve Aiken, who were also on the trip.

On 7 October 2023, about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were abducted during a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.

Israel then launched a military campaign in Gaza during which more than 68,500 people have been killed, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

In September, the world’s leading association of genocide scholars declared that genocide was taking place in Gaza, but Israel continues to reject that claim.