DUP MLA chides Bill Clinton saying a better deal than Windsor Framework can be obtained if unionists persevere

​Phillip Brett, an MLA from North Belfast, was reacting to comments made by the former US president during a joint speaking engagement with Gerry Adams in New York City.

Mr Brett was among the DUP team who stayed up all night at the Belfast count centre following the Brexit referendum, celebrating as dawn neared and Vote Leave began to emerge victorious.

According to the Irish Times’ correspondent Matt Wall in the US, Mr Clinton told his audience at the Friends of Sinn Fein event on Monday night: “The Windsor Framework, I think, is about as good as anybody could get and we ought to stand up the government and, I think, get on with the business that the people voted for delegates to serve in the Northern Ireland parliament.”

Mr Brett responded by telling the News Letter: “President Clinton may believe the Windsor Framework ‘is about as good as anybody could get’.

"This was the view he held in relation to the Belfast Agreement, but the DUP persevered to deliver changes at St Andrew’s that provided the foundations for stable devolved government.

“The lesson that we must take from that period, is that it is only possible to make progress in Northern Ireland when we achieve an outcome that can command the support of both unionists and nationalists.

“The DUP wants to see a return to developed government, but that can only happen when we build solid foundations allowing us to move forward together.”

Meanwhile, Mr Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, featured in an RTE show on Tuesday night, where they were quizzed about Irish politics ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

In it, he said: “I think we should say [to the DUP]: ‘Look, there’s something to work with here’. The party that’s getting the most votes now [Sinn Féin] doesn’t want to jam you, they want to work with you to resolve these things.

"How can we live together? How can we work together? How can we all put our heads on the pillow at night and feel at peace about what our children are going to face.”

He also described Brexit as having been “aimed right at the heart of the Good Friday Agreement, even if not intentionally”, adding it was a “miracle” that the 1998 deal had survived the process.

Meanwhile Mrs Clinton agreed, saying “Brexit set it back, to be blunt, creating a very difficult situation for Northern Ireland in the midst of separating from the European Union”.

She added: “That looks like it's on the way to being resolved, and hopefully it will be. And then the next step will be to stand up a government.”