Hillary Clinton: Brexit ‘motivated by misconceptions and myths’

The decision by voters in the United Kingdom to vote to quit the European Union was "motivated by misconceptions and myths" and must not damage Northern Ireland's peace process, Hillary Clinton has said.

In an interview in Saturday's Irish Times, Clinton urges Westminster politicians investigating issues including the alleged misuse of personal data to influence voters to "dig to the bottom, regardless of who is implicated".

Speaking to the investigative news website The Detail in her offices in New York, Ms Clinton raised concerns over Brexit: “Nobody knows what Brexit is going to mean. Obviously I don’t support it.

“I think it was a shortsighted and unfortunate decision that was in great measure motivated by misconceptions and myths about what was happening in the relationship with the EU.

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“That’s for the UK to sort out, but they better figure out what to do about the Border in order to maintain the peace,” said Ms Clinton, the former US secretary of state and defeated 2016 presidential candidate.

Women’s rights

She also spoke of the emergence of a wave of protest movements linked to women’s rights since the 2016 US presidential election.

And Ms Clinton raised concerns over allegations of the misuse of personal data and social media to influence major political decisions.

"It worries me a great deal, what we are learning about the manipulation of social media data, the fraudulent use of that to drive untrue messages, the role that Russia and other sources of money and influence play, both in Brexit and in the United States, all of that bothers me because our democracy has to be protected and you cannot see something as serious as what we are now uncovering and not worry about what comes next."

‘Discouraged by impasse’

On the failure to restore the political institutions in the North, she said: "I'm deeply concerned about what is not being done in pursuit of a governing agreement that will focus on the issues that are still important to the people of Northern Ireland and I'm discouraged that the impasse has lasted so long.

“I’m just wondering, those who refuse to come together to create a government, what is the future they expect?

“Are they hoping to just maintain a status quo where no decisions – good, bad or indifferent – are made and where some of the promise of a peace dividend will not be fulfilled?

"And then, of course, it's complicated by the Brexit vote and the Border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland."