United Kingdom prime minister's top aides resign after election fiasco

In a major upset, the Labour Party shocked the world by outperforming expectations and managed to nab seats of Parliament away from the Conservative Party, which is now headed by Prime Minister Theresa May, but while celebrating with fellow Labour Party politician Emily Thornberry, things got very awkward when he went in for a high-five... and ended up slapping her breast.

The calls showed Washington's and Paris's preference for maintaining the ties they've developed with May, despite the pressure she is getting from opposition groups in Britain to step down after her Conservative party lost its majority in Parliament in snap elections. Mostly, the European Union mood was one of frustration that the already tough Brexit talks were likely to become only more hard.

Will Brexit negotiations be delayed?

But EU officials question how any British government could persuade voters to accept a Norway-style package and so would be wary of starting down the path of negotiating it for fear of ending up without a deal that both sides could ratify in 2019.

Corbyn, who voted against European Union membership in 1975 but said he voted for membership in 2016, told voters the issue of Brexit had been settled.

"It's an issue very close to my heart and one that I wanted categoric assurances from the prime minister on, and I received (them)", said Davidson, who is engaged to be married to her female partner.

British media reported later Friday that May had no intention of resigning.

The new government and its partners will have to work hard to agree a strategy, although the EU's budget commissioner, Gunther Oettinger, tweeted that the United Kingdom is now a weaker negotiating partner than prior to the election and questioned whether the Brexit negotiations could start on schedule.

Voters in Scotland made their views clear at the polls, sending a resounding message to the Scottish National Party, which lost more than 20 seats. Following the failed 2014 independence referendum, the Nationalists won 54 out of 57 Scottish seats in 2015; a key component of their campaign this time was to get a new independence referendum as early as next March. Before the election, the Conservatives had 330 seats and Labour 229.

After being re-elected with an increased majority in her own seat, May said Britain "needs a period of stability" as it prepares for the complicated process of withdrawing from the European Union.

Voters were left flustered Friday by the fast-moving events.

The new dispensation may also give May less room to pursue some of her other goals, such as rolling back the human rights laws that get in the way of her counterterrorist and anti-"extremist" efforts.

Jean-Claude Juncker, who heads the European Commission - the executive arm of the EU - told a press conference this morning that Brussels is ready to start negotiations and that he hopes the election result will not lead to a delay, according to an FT report.

Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said it's not even clear whether May will now lead those negotiations. "I was kind of hoping it would just go the way that the polls suggested it would and we could have a quiet life in Westminster but now it's going to be a bit of a mess".

During the campaign, she backtracked on a major proposal on care for the elderly, opted not to debate her opponents on television and faced questions over her record on security after Britain was hit by two Islamist militant attacks that killed 30 people.

Eight people were killed near London Bridge on Saturday when three men drove a van into pedestrians and then stabbed revelers in an area filled with bars and restaurants.

Few, not least Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May, expected the UK's prospects to have changed so dramatically overnight. Two weeks earlier, a suicide bomber killed 22 people as they were leaving an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester.