British PM Theresa May says she takes responsibility for election result

Britain's prime minister has begun talks with a Northern Ireland-based party Tuesday to see if they can create an alliance to push through the Conservative Party's agenda after a disastrous snap election left her short of a majority in Parliament.

Theresa May and Boris Johnson at the first Cabinet meeting after the United Kingdom election.

Verhofstadt also cast doubt on May's strategy, telling journalists at the parliament in Strasbourg that Britain's election result "was certainly not a support of the hard Brexit".

The Conservatives, led by Theresa May, are now in talks with Northern Ireland's ultra-conservative Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to forge an informal alliance.

Brexit minister David Davis has insisted the approach to the European Union divorce has not changed, but May has recognised that a broader consensus needs to be built for Brexit and has made clear she would listen to all wings of the party on the issue.

European Union leaders have voiced growing impatience to start Brexit negotiations, which have already been delayed by the parliamentary election - and on which the clock is ticking.

"Now as Parliament returns, we have a Government in complete disarray still unable to reach an agreement, it seems, with the DUP and desperately delaying the Queen's Speech and Brexit negotiations".

While some members of her party have said she will have to go eventually, Ms May is expected to stay on as Prime Minister at least for now.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn countered with a bit of previously unseen swagger, wearing a huge red rose - his party's symbol - in his lapel as he sparred with May and taunted her about the uncertainty surrounding the upcoming vote on her legislative program, known as the Queen's Speech.

"I find it incredibly self indulgent for the Tory party to be going for this sort of stuff", he said on ITV television. This, in my opinion, would make the whole process even less democratic, because her mandate is now much weaker than it was before the election.

May is set to meet DUP leader Arlene Foster in London on Tuesday but will face demands from the DUP for more money for Northern Ireland.

Negotiations broke up on Tuesday night without an agreement, but Mrs May said the discussions had been "productive".

"We achieved what we did last Thursday because we were a united party during the campaign and we need to maintain that unity and collective discipline in the weeks and months ahead".

Despite the uncertainty over her ability to govern, May had confirmed that Brexit negotiations - expected to be the most complex worldwide talks Britain has held for decades - would begin as planned next week.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who is also touted to replace Mrs May should she be forced out, wrote in The Sun newspaper that people "have had a bellyful of promises and politicking", and that "now is the time for delivery - and Theresa May is the right person to continue that vital work".

The local government has not been in session for months, due to a stand-off between Sinn Fein, the former political wing of the Irish Republican Army, and the DUP, which is supported by former loyalist paramilitaries.

Labour may have won 30 seats, but it still falls 64 seats short of a possibility to form a majority government, and even if it aligned with all other left-leaning parties such as the Liberal Democrats of the Greens, that would still not be almost enough to challenge the Conservatives.

After the opposition Labour Party made hefty election gains by focusing heavily on national issues, May listed areas such as education and housing as top policy priorities. "I can't say when it's going to be, but there is going to be such a referendum".

He told ITV that he is an "unswerving supporter" of Mrs May, and that there is a distinction between "running a campaign and running a country".

"My judgment is that they are fed up to the back teeth with all this".