UK: May to form minority govt after shock at polls

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON (AA) – British Prime Minister Theresa May has said her ruling Conservative Party will form a minority government with support from Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, after losing the majority in Thursday’s snap election.

May will form a government with her 318 MPs with the support of 10 MPs from the Democratic Unionists.

May received the green light to continue as prime minister of the new government after a brief meeting with the queen Friday afternoon.

May said she will form a “government that will provide certainty”, and reaffirmed her commitment to leaving the European Union, in a short statement in front of 10 Downing Street.

She pledged to build a country in which no one is left behind.

“What the country needs more than anything is certainty. Only the Conservative and Unionist party can provide this,” she said.

“Now let’s get to work,” she said.

-Calls to resign

The announcement came amid calls for May to resign after gamble to call a snap general election failed to pay off.

The premier had hoped in vain to secure a convincing leadership mandate before Brexit negotiations with the EU, scheduled to begin on June 19.

With most of the U.K.’s 650 Westminster seats filled by early Friday morning, May’s Conservatives had fallen short of the number needed for a ruling majority with 318 seats.

Ahead of her coalition announcement, main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said May's attempt to win a bigger mandate had backfired and called on her to resign.

“The mandate she's got is lost Conservative seats, lost votes, lost support and lost confidence,” Corbyn told supporters in his Islington North constituency in north London, which he retained with more than 40,000 votes.

“I would have thought that's enough to go, actually, and make way for a government that will be truly representative of all of the people of this country,” he added.

Labour had won 261 seats by early Friday, up from 229, the best result for the party since its election wins under former leader Tony Blair and in the face of predictions that it faced a landslide defeat.