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Theresa May to seek to form UK government | Theresa May to seek to form UK government |
(35 minutes later) | |
Theresa May will visit Buckingham Palace at 12:30 BST to seek permission to form a UK government, despite losing her Commons majority. | Theresa May will visit Buckingham Palace at 12:30 BST to seek permission to form a UK government, despite losing her Commons majority. |
The prime minister is attempting to stay in office on the understanding that the Democratic Unionist Party will support her minority administration. | The prime minister is attempting to stay in office on the understanding that the Democratic Unionist Party will support her minority administration. |
With one seat left to declare, the Tories are eight seats short of the 326 figure needed to command a majority. | With one seat left to declare, the Tories are eight seats short of the 326 figure needed to command a majority. |
Jeremy Corbyn has urged her to quit, saying Labour is "ready to serve". | Jeremy Corbyn has urged her to quit, saying Labour is "ready to serve". |
After a disappointing night for the Conservatives, Theresa May faces ending up with 12 fewer seats than when she called the election and will need the support of other parties to govern. | |
The Tories are forecast to end up with 319 seats ahead of Labour on 261, the SNP 35 and the Lib Dems on 12. The DUP won 10 seats. | |
Combined, the Tories and the DUP would have 329 MPs in the Commons. | |
Mrs May has signalled her intention to carry on in Downing Street, saying the country needs "stability" with the start of Brexit negotiations 10 days away. | |
It is thought Mrs May will seek some kind of informal arrangement with the DUP that could see it "lend" its support the Tories on a vote-by-vote basis, known as "confidence and supply". | |
The DUP is currently meeting to discuss what it has said is a "messy" situation. | |
A DUP source confirmed soundings had been made, but nothing formal had been agreed. Talk of an agreement was described as "premature". | |
Labour has said it is also ready to form a minority government of its own, after far exceeding expectations by picking up 29 seats in England, Wales and Scotland. | |
But even if it joined together in a so-called progressive alliance with the SNP, Lib Dems, Green Party and Plaid Cymru, it would only reach 313 seats - short of the 326 figure. | |
The Conservatives have argued in the event of a hung Parliament, Mrs May gets the opportunity to form a government first, as her predecessor David Cameron did in 2010 when there was also no clear winner but the party had comfortably more seats than their nearest rival. | |
Mrs May has faced calls to quit from within her own party, with Anna Soubry saying she should consider her position after a "disastrous" campaign and Nigel Evans saying "things needs to change" in her dealings with the party. However, many MPs have urged her to stay on. | |
Mr Corbyn, speaking after being re-elected in Islington North, said it was time for Mrs May to "make way" for a government that would be "truly representative of the people of this country". | |
He later told the BBC it was it was "pretty clear who has won this election". | |
"We are ready to serve the people who have put their trust in us," he said - but he also stressed he would not enter into any "pacts or deals" with other parties. | |
Lord O'Donnell, formerly the UK's top civil servant, told the BBC that the prime minister had a duty to stay in post "for now" and had the right to seek the confidence of the House of Commons by asking it to approve a Queen's Speech, scheduled for 19 June. | |
Meanwhile, UKIP leader Paul Nuttall has quit after his party failed to win any seats and saw its vote collapse across the country. |