[8][10] According to a 2014 article in the Belfast Telegraph, Givan's "first experience of 'real politics' came when he was 18", at which time he was part-time assistant in the constituency and Stormont offices of Edwin Poots.

Givan has stated that his interest in the DUP resulted from listening to Ian Paisley – at a rally against the Good Friday Agreement in Kilkeel.

[20] However, in July, the Irish News said Givan was expected to remain in his position until "later this year" after the new DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson said in a UTV interview that he intended to resign his seat as a Westminster MP and become First Minister before the planned 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election, but also said that he did not yet know precisely how he would bring this about.

[21] On 3 February 2022, Givan announced his resignation as First Minister, as part of DUP protests against the Northern Ireland Protocol.

[28][29] The motion was passed by Lisburn City Council and asked all post-primary schools in the area what plans they had to "develop teaching material in relation to creation, intelligent design and other theories of origin".

[31] Givan supported Edwin Poots' successful bid to become leader of the Democratic Unionist Party in May 2021, alongside Mervyn Storey and Paul Frew.

[32] In 2014, a formal complaint was made by a sex worker, Laura Lee, over Givan's treatment of her after she had been invited to appear at a hearing to discuss proposed changes to prostitution legislation in Northern Ireland.

[33] In February 2015, Givan proposed a Northern Ireland Freedom of Conscience Amendment Bill, after controversy and legal action arose when Ashers Baking Company, a business owned by a religious family, refused to bake and decorate a cake with a message supportive of same-sex marriage.

[35] The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission subsequently published an advisory noting that the "underlying premise" of the proposed bill (that "freedom to manifest one’s religion is undermined by the protection of individuals from discrimination") was unfounded, and that the Northern Ireland Assembly could not enact laws incompatible with existing conventions on human rights.

[37] In December 2016, Givan cut funding for the Líofa scheme, which enabled people to go to the Donegal Gaeltacht to learn Irish.

This decision prompted Gerry Adams to label him as an "ignoramus",[38] and Martin McGuinness described the removal of the Bursary Scheme as "the straw that broke the camel's back" in his resignation speech from the role of deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland leading to a political crisis in the Stormont Executive.