ULSTER Unionist MP Tom Elliott has said he will vote to trigger talks on leaving the European Union because it is “the will of the people.”
Legislation will be introduced “within days” to keep Theresa May’s timetable for leaving the EU on track, after the prime minister suffered defeat in a historic legal battle over Brexit. 
By a majority of eight to three, judges at the Supreme Court rejected the UK Government’s plan to use prerogative powers to trigger withdrawal talks under Article 50 of the EU treaties, ruling that ministers must first obtain the consent of Parliament.
Downing Street has insisted that Tuesday’s ruling would not derail the prime minister’s deadline of invoking Article 50 by the end of March. And Brexit Secretary David Davis told the House of Commons that a “straightforward” bill would be tabled to give effect to the decision of Britain’s voters.
Mr. Elliott, who voted in the referendum to leave the EU last June, told The Impartial Reporter he will vote to trigger Article 50: “It is the will of the people so it would be unfair, I believe, for Parliament to go against that.”
“If the vote had gone the other way in not triggering Brexit then I would have rowed in behind that,” said the Fermanagh-south Tyrone representative.
When it was put to him that his own constituency voted overwhelmingly, 67.82 per cent, to remain in the EU, Mr. Elliott said: “I wouldn’t say overwhelming but they did vote marginally.”
“But the point is the people of the UK did and it’s going to happen so what we need to do is make the best case we can,” he said. 
Mr. Elliott’s party leader Mike Nesbitt addressed a House of Lords inquiry last year on leaving the EU, claiming that Brexit would cut Northern Ireland off from the rest of the UK.
In a speech last week Mrs. May said the Government would maintain the common travel area with the Republic of Ireland, a topic that has sparked much debate in the Border area of Fermanagh. 
“Nobody wants to return to the Borders of the past, so we will make it a priority to deliver a practical solution as soon as we can,” said Mrs. May.
Sinn Fein’s Michelle Gildernew, a former MP for the area, said Mr. Elliott’s decision to vote in favour of Article 50 is “a disgrace.”
“There was a majority in the North of Ireland like there was in Scotland for us to stay part of Europe. The people of the North of Ireland and the people of Fermanagh-south Tyrone voted for remaining in the EU and if Tom Elliott treats his constituents with disdain I am disgusted at him. I think he needs to take account of the views of the people he represents,” she told this newspaper.
Ms. Gildernew said Mrs. May “has no regard at all of the interests of the people of Ireland.”
“She doesn’t have a plan, she just has a wish list. If she exits the single market and customs union she will create a hard Border in Ireland and that will be a disaster for the people of Ireland.” 
Asked if Sinn Fein should now take their seats at Westminster to take part in the vote, Ms. Gildernew said: “You know we operate a policy of active abstentionism.”
“From my reading of the situation we wouldn’t make a difference. I would not advocate taking an oath to The Queen on this, the same as I wouldn’t any other time,” she said.  No date has yet been set to begin the process of taking an Article 50 bill through the Commons and Lords, with officials at Mr. Davis’s Department for Exiting the EU due to finalise its wording soon.