LONDON: Prime Minister Theresa May said Friday she would form a new British government with backing from Northern Irish unionists after losing her Conservative majority in a snap general election.
"I have just been to see Her Majesty the Queen and I will now form a government - a government that can provide certainty and lead Britain forward at this critical time for our country," she said after returning from Buckingham Palace to her Downing Street office in London.
May's Conservative Party lost its overall majority in Parliament in Thursday's election. Her best prospect for forming a new government appears to be an arrangement with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in Northern Ireland, which won 10 seats.
However, she believed it would be "difficult for (May) to survive."
May had called the early election in hopes of getting a bigger majority to strengthen her hand in discussions with the European Union over the country's exit from the bloc.