I'm going to get us out of this mess: UK PM

The turmoil started when May chose to hold snap elections to gain more seats for her party, which already had majority in parliament, to strengthen her position in the upcoming Brexit talks scheduled for June 19.

With her authority diminished, May won some time when she performed well on Monday in front of Conservative lawmakers who said they would help her remain in power, at least for now.

Last night Mrs May was cheered at the first meeting of backbench Tory MPs since losing her majority as she told them: "I got us into this mess and I'll get us out of it".

But after gambling away a majority in parliament in an election she did not need to call, May needs to unite a disillusioned party around her to not only support her in the Brexit talks but also to strike a deal with a small Northern Irish party that will enable her to stay in power.

Arlene Foster said she hoped to capitalise on opportunities the situation presented for Northern Ireland.

But pro-Brexit Tory MPs will not let go of a hard Brexit without a fight: they are furious at any moves to water down something they see as the will of the British people.

She said a deal between the Democratic Unionist Party and the Conservatives - who have informally been building links for some time - could be a "tremendous opportunity" for Northern Ireland.

One possible effect of Brexit is the "hardening" of the border between UK-controlled Northern Ireland and the state of Ireland.

The Tories and the DUP are considering a "confidence and supply" arrangement which would see the Northern Irish party back the Government to get its Budget through and on confidence motions.

James Brokenshire said the current process, which involves the United Kingdom and Irish governments chairing elements of the negotiations and the head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service moderating other discussions, was the "right approach".

However, when asked about whether the Brexit talks would start for real on June 19 as planned, Winterstein said: "I can not say".

Former Treasury chief George Osborne — who was sacked by May a year ago — called May a "dead woman walking", and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said he was ready to contest another election at any time.

Mrs May apologised to Tory MPs on Monday, accepting personal responsibility for failing to win an outright victory and sacrificing the parliamentary majority she inherited from David Cameron when she became leader previous year.

Mrs May's self-interest was again to the fore at the weekend as her advisers paid the price for electoral failure, following the threat of a leadership challenge if the Prime Minister did not remove them. That economic factor, Meban says, is likely why Northern Ireland voted "remain" by a majority of 56 percent.

But her election failure means she must now go into Britain's most complex negotiations since World War Two with her eye firmly on the different factions within her Conservative Party, which has been divided over European Union membership for a generation. With Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, today saying she's convinced the Prime Minister will now put the "country's economic future first" in Brexit negotiations, it's clear that a row over the nature of Brexit is on the cards.

European Commission spokesman Alexander Winterstein said "we are quite confident" that technical talks "can start soon, maybe even this week".

"Our position is clearly set out, it is clearly set out in a number of places and there has been no change to that", he said.

Finally, and perhaps most crucially, May has lost control over Brexit - the very reason she called an election three years early.

"There's a possibility of voting the Queen's Speech down and we're going to push that all the way".