May clings to power with DUP deal
Details still murky but Northern Irish party likely to support Conservatives on a vote-by-vote basis. PLUS: Full results.
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Conservative leader Theresa May says she will form a government with backing from the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party.
No details of the deal have been made public at this point, and are likely still being hammered out as the DUP angles for policy concessions.
But UK pundits say it will likely be a confidence-and-supply arrangement, with the DUP supporting the Tories on a vote-by-vote basis.
A majority of people in Northern Ireland voted "remain" in the referendum on EU membership, but the socially-conservative DUP is pro-Brexit — aligning it with one of Ms May's key goals.
Meanwhile, Ms May's leadership remains under pressure.
The Conservative leader gambled that the snap election would increase her party's number of seats in Parliament, giving it a mandate for a "hard Brexit."
Instead, the Tories lost their majority, falling below the 326 seats required to govern alone.
Both of the two main parties increased their percentage of the vote as support for third parties fell away.
But it was Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party that made the largest gains as Ms May ran what many commentators called a lacklustre campaign, and Mr Corbyn managed a much more focused effort than many had anticipated.
Bookies have Ms May as favourite to remain leader in the event the Conservatives do go to a leadership ballot but the odds for Boris Johnson have been rising.
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Graphic: BBC
Staff Reporter
Sat, 10 Jun 2017
Sat, 10 Jun 2017
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May clings to power with DUP deal
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