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International desk: British Prime Minister Theresa May was forced to relinquish her two closest aides on Saturday as she struggled to reassert her authority following a crushing electoral setback.<\/p>\nInternational desk: British Prime Minister Theresa May was forced to relinquish her two closest aides on Saturday as she struggled to reassert her authority following a crushing electoral setback.<\/p>\n
The Conservative leader has been warned her days are numbered after calling Thursday's vote three years early, only to lose her majority in parliament.<\/p>\n
Senior party figures have cautioned against any immediate leadership challenge, saying it would only cause further disruption as Britain prepares to start Brexit negotiations as early as June 19.<\/p>\n
But reports suggest they demanded the departure of May's joint chiefs of staff, Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill, as the price for allowing the 60-year-old vicar's daughter to stay in office.<\/p>\n
May announced Friday she would seek to form a minority government with the help of a small Northern Irish party, the far-right Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).<\/p>\n
She put on a brave face, refusing to show any contrition for the election gamble that spectacularly backfired, but observers say she has been deeply wounded.<\/p>\n
“From hubris to humiliation,” said the left-leaning Guardian. “May stares into the abyss,” wrote The Times, while Conservative-supporting The Sun tabloid said succinctly: “She's had her chips.”<\/p>\n
– ‘Toxic' atmosphere –<\/p>\n
May had relied on Timothy and Hill for advice and support since her previous job at the interior ministry, and their resignations will be a personal blow.Timothy said he took responsibility for the Conservative manifesto, including a plan for elderly social care that caused a backlash among many core voters.<\/p>\n
A party spokesman confirmed the resignation of Hill, a combative character who one ex-colleague said had helped create a “toxic” atmosphere at the heart of government.<\/p>\n
The news came as May prepared to name the rest of her cabinet, after revealing Friday that her five most senior ministers would remain in their posts.<\/p>\n
Before the election, she had been widely expected to sack finance minister Philip Hammond following a reported clash over her Brexit strategy.<\/p>\n
– ‘No time to lose' –<\/p>\n
The Conservatives won 318 seats in Thursday's vote, down from 331 in 2015, falling short of an overall majority in the 650-seat House of Commons after the opposition Labour Party, led by socialist stalwart Jeremy Corbyn, scored hefty gains.<\/p>\n
The DUP, which won 10 seats, said it is ready to talk with May about supporting her government, although such an alliance would be far from straight forward.<\/p>\n
London's neutrality in Northern Ireland is key to the delicate balance of power in the province once plagued by decades of unrest.<\/p>\n
But the Protestant DUP was founded to defend Northern Ireland's place in Britain against demands by Catholic republicans for a united Ireland.<\/p>\n
On Brexit, the DUP supports leaving the EU but opposes a return to a “hard” border with Ireland — which could happen if May carries through her threat to walk away from the talks rather than accept a “bad deal”.<\/p>\n
The prime minister has vowed to pull Britain out of Europe's single market in order to end mass migration from the bloc, despite fears of the economic impact.<\/p>\n
The DUP is “likely to increase the pressure on Theresa May to secure a comprehensive free trade agreement”, said Stephen Booth of the Open Europe think tank.<\/p>\n
European Council President Donald Tusk has warned there was “no time to lose” in starting talks, after May started the two-year countdown to Brexit on March 29.<\/p>\n
The DUP's opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion has also alarmed some in May's party, particularly Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson, who is gay.<\/p>\n
Davidson, who led her party to its best result for three decades, winning 13 seats in Scotland, said she had sought and received assurances from May on the issue.<\/p>\n
“I told her that there were a number of things that count to me more than the party. One of them is country, one of the others is LGBTI rights,” she told the BBC.<\/p>\n
– ‘Further upheaval' -May was interior minister for six years before taking over from David Cameron in the political chaos that following last June's Brexit referendum.<\/p>\n
She inherited a 17-seat majority in the Commons, but called the snap vote to take advantage of opinion polls putting her on course for a landslide.<\/p>\n
May sought to frame the campaign around her personal leadership heading into Brexit, but this was undermined by public performances derided as robotic.<\/p>\n
Two terror attacks put scrutiny on her record of cutting police numbers, playing into the hands of the opposition Labour party and its promise to end austerity.<\/p>\n
Conservative lawmaker Anna Soubry said May should “consider her position”, while another, Heidi Allen, said she may not last six months.<\/p>\n
However, former Conservative party leaders warned against any immediate change, with Iain Duncan Smith saying leadership contest would be a “catastrophe”.<\/p>\n
“Voters do not want further months of uncertainty and upheaval,” William Hague wrote in the Daily Telegraph, while adding that “very serious lessons” would be learned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
International desk: British Prime Minister Theresa May was forced to relinquish her two closest aides on Saturday as she struggled to reassert her authority following a crushing electoral setback. The Conservative leader has been warned her days are numbered after calling Thursday’s vote three years early, only to lose her majority in parliament. Senior party […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":33971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n