Now, everyone in Britain is trying to figure out what happens next.
"Clearly if she's got a worse result than two years ago and is nearly unable to form a government, then she, I doubt, will survive in the long term as Conservative Party leader", former Conservative Treasury chief George Osborne said on ITV.
"And I will form a government - a government that can provide certainty and lead Britain forward at this critical time for our country", said the Prime Minister in a prepared statement. Protocol dictates that May must now put a "Queen's speech" to a vote in Parliament to officially establish her new government.
However, there has been no confirmation on whether the coalition will be a "formal one" that will require the Tories to share ministerial job positions with the DUP, or whether it will follow the tradition of 'confidence and supply, ' which is a more informal arrangement in which smaller parties agree to back the biggest party's main bills. Following the Brexit referendum, the snap polls represent the second disastrous election called by a Tory PM in two years.
Trump offered his warm support to May over the just-concluded parliamentary election, it said.
That still left sterling down 1.7 percent against the dollar on the day and on track for its biggest one-day fall since last June, though that move was dwarfed by an nearly 8 percent dive the day after last June's European Union referendum.
Once May has ironed out details with the DUP, she will unveil a new cabinet in the coming days.
Trump Lawyer Reportedly to File Complaint Against Comey Over Shared Memos
The Senate judiciary committee, meanwhile, sent a request to Columbia University law professor Daniel Richman for Comey's memos. Under oath Thursday, Comey repeatedly called Trump a liar - Trump responded Friday by saying Comey was a liar.
Several lawmakers demanded the resignation of May's top advisers, who have been widely blamed for a disastrous policy to make the elderly pay more for their care and a campaign seen as too insulated from ordinary voters and too focused on attacking her opponent. Hard Brexit would have been anathema to many of them.
May's logic is not clear yet but political commentators speculate that it is because of the social conservatism of the DUP.
May may yet face a leadership challenge.
The last time the United Kingdom had a minority government was in 1996 when by-election defeats and defections erased the Conservative Party's majority. "I would have thought that's enough to go". Instead of accepting defeat, however, May claims that she will continue to push for Brexit negotiations. "Whether she can last until the next general election is questionable".
May took a gamble in April by calling for the snap election.
But what exactly is a minority government and why is May forming one? "I suspect that any government that tried it would not be able to do it for a very long time" he told TIME, before the results emerged.
The point being rammed home is that only the European Union can agree to extend the two-year Article 50 timetable and prevent Britain crashing out with no deal - with the threat of enormous economic damage. "I'm not sure that we should read, from the results of this vote, that Britons' sovereign decision on Brexit has been cast into doubt in any way". He believes the country will fall into "some kind" of a recession in the next few years.





Comments