U.K.

Jeremy Corbyn enjoys kickabout as politics takes a backseat

May campaigned to get a larger majority, but now Britain has a hung Parliament, meaning that no single party has enough seats to form a government. "If she has an ounce of self-respect, she will resign", said Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, while Conservative M.P. and former minister Anna Soubry said May "is in a very hard place... she now has to obviously consider her position".

May put on a fearless face after Thursday's vote, expressing sorrow for the MPs who lost their seats but refusing to acknowledge how her election gamble backfired.

Jeremy Corbyn is now favourite to become the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, according to the general election exit poll.

May also reappointed an old adversary - Michael Gove, a former rival for the Conservative leadership whom May fired from the Cabinet when she took office a year ago.

British Prime Minister Theresa May vowed to form a government and lead Brexit negotiations after loosing a major snap election Thursday, just 10 days before the government was due to begin Brexit negotiations. Many pundits here are saying May will probably face a leadership challenge pretty soon.

The pound hit an eight-week low against the dollar and its lowest levels in seven months versus the euro before recovering slightly on news she would form a DUP-backed government.

May is seeking to rely on the Democratic Unionist Party's 10 MPs to win key votes in parliament.

"I certainly think that there will be contact made over the weekend but I think it is too soon to talk about what we're going to do".

May is preparing to name the rest of her cabinet, after revealing Friday that her five most senior ministers would stay in their posts.

Police stand guard as protesters hold placards as they attend a demonstration against the Conservative party alliance with the DUP outside Downing Street on Saturday. In Kensington, an overwhelmingly Conservative seat - but also overwhelmingly anti-Brexit - the vote was so close that recounting was suspended at 8 a.m. on Friday so that election officials could go home and rest.

The exit poll predicted the Conservatives would win 314 seats and the Labour Party 266, meaning no clear victor and a "hung parliament". He said voters had rejected her Brexit plan. May, in April, announced a snap election three years ahead of time, declaring she needed a stronger hand in the Brexit haggle.

"The Conservatives have not yet broken the British system of democracy, but through their hubris and incompetence they have managed to make a mockery of it", it said in an editorial.

But the wooing of the DUP risks upsetting the political balance in Northern Ireland by aligning London more closely with the pro-British side in the divided province, where a power-sharing government with Irish nationalists is now suspended.

Labour under him polled 40 per cent of the vote, the highest for the party since 1970, and only slightly behind Ms May's Tories. "I'm ready for another general election", Corbyn said.

A deal between the government and the DUP could also unsettle the precarious balance between Northern Ireland's British loyalist and Irish nationalist parties.

stayontheblack.com

Jeremy Corbyn enjoys kickabout as politics takes a backseat