Theresa May to seek formation of government despite losing her majority

With 649 of 650 seats in the House of Commons declared, May's bruised Conservatives had 318 - short of the 326 they needed for an outright majority and well down from the 330 seats they had before the vote.

He gained ground when she seemed to suggest what was quickly called a "dementia tax" that could cause the elderly to have to sell their homes to pay for nursing care, and in the final days repeatedly hammered May for cutting 20,000 police officers during her tenure as interior minister - an assertion that carried weight as major terrorist attacks hit Manchester and London. The Tories campaigned against a "coalition of chaos" - but now it is they who lead exactly that.

"And I'm sorry for all those candidates and hard-working party workers who weren't successful, but also particularly sorry for those colleagues who were MPs and ministers who had contributed so much to our country and who lost their seats and didn't deserve to lose their seats".

With the Conservatives set for too few seats to form a majority government, both Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and the Lib Dem's Tim Farron have urged May to step down.

Thursday's election returned the surprise result of a hung parliament in which no party could form a majority. Her main opponent - Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, known for his left-wing views - was stumbling from mishap to mishap, unable even to muster solid support from his party's own lawmakers. Anna Soubry, a Conservative MP, said May would have to consider her position.

"She called this election expecting a coronation, and took each and every one of us for granted in the most cynical way possible", Farron said., adding that May "put the future of the country at risk with arrogance and vanity". Her plan of a coronation crumbling before her, the prime minister has created the very opposite of what she promised.

She said she would work with the DUP, a party she called her "ally", to provide stable government. Just weeks ago, Theresa May was riding high in the polls, opening up a 24-point lead over the Labour Party.

Party leaders were particularly upset with Corbyn and other Labour leaders' past support of Sinn Fein - a party with past ties to the IRA. In parliamentary terms the Tories will now have to rely on the 10 seats held by Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party to get any legislation through. Well the mandate she's got is lost Conservative seats, lost votes, lost support and lost confidence. "And make way for a government that will be truly representative of all of the people of this country". "I don't think Theresa May is a give up and go person", Patrick Dunleavy, professor of political science and public policy at LSE, says.

The Green Party's Laura Fisk said: "It has been an extraordinary election in extraordinary circumstances and it has been a pleasure to be involved in the democratic process".

"I have had queues at my polling stations in a way that I've never seen before". "Our leader needs to take stock as well". The SNP looked set to finish with 34 seats, a loss of 22 but enough to combine with other opposition parties to make life hard for the Tories. Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said the idea of a new independence referendum "is dead".

"Politics has changed and this is people saying they have had quite enough".

With almost all votes counted, the Conservative Party has 318 seats, according to the BBC. European officials are anxious that the weaker position of the Conservatives make a breakdown in negotiations more likely. The Conservatives remain the biggest party. Her campaign adviser Lynton Crosby, famed for his "dog whistle" tactics, will also come under scrutiny. He lost the seat past year, after triggering a by-election by leaving the Conservatives to run as an independent in protest to the government's decision to allow a third runway to be built at Heathrow. Ben Gummer, who helped author the Tories costing-free manifesto, was defeated in Ipswich, housing minister Gavin Barwell lost in Croydon Central and a 10% swing to Labour saw off Treasury Secretary Jane Ellison's 8,000 majority in Battersea.