UK PM Thersa May and DUP have largely agreed support deal

At a private meeting with rank-and-file lawmakers Monday evening May pledged to consult the party more over policy and said she will seek a national consensus on Brexit in a bid to heal divisions over the best approach to leaving the European Union.

A stream of senior lawmakers entered May’s 10 Downing St. office Sunday afternoon, to learn what roles they had been given in government.

Speaking to MPs for the first time since the result, the Prime Minister finally showed real remorse.

Their tally is 13 less than the seats they had won during last election.

“I am concerned [by the need] to have a partner for the negotiation as quickly as possible”, Barnier said.

Despite an election in which she and her Conservative Party lost their majority in Parliament, she and her surrogates had insisted in recent days that the country’s plans to ask Europe for a clean break following almost a half-century of union would not be affected. Labour surpassed expectations by winning 262.

A diplomatic source said the meeting consisted of preparatory discussions ahead of the main talks and that further contacts would continue this week. Theresa May backed the Remain campaign, until she launched her leadership campaign with the slogan “Brexit means Brexit”.

Movement on security and legacy issues from the Troubles may prove more hard for Mrs Foster to extract from the government.

In the hours immediately after Thursday’s embarrassing election setback for the Conservatives, British media reported that finance minister Philip Hammond had told May she needed to put “jobs first” in any new deal with Brussels.

However, this scrambling around to find a way of securing a Commons majority is likely to be her undoing.

May appointed Steve Baker, a prominent Brexit campaigner, to the Department for Exiting the EU. It would also leave open the option of walking away from the negotiations with no deal in place – a decision that many businesses warn could be disastrous.

Brussels has warned that time is running out to start the talks on divorce terms and a future trade deal, with Britain set to leave the European Union come what may in March 2019.

Theresa May has apologised to Tory MPs for the party’s election performance, telling them “I got us into this mess I’ll get us out of it”.

Brexit talks have been delayed while Prime Minister Theresa May forms a new minority government.

The talks revolve around support from the DUP on a vote-by-vote basis in parliament, rather than a formal coalition government.

The alliance makes some modernizing Conservatives uneasy. DUP is strongly anti-abortion and anti-same sex marriage, for example – stances that aren’t very popular in the rest of the UK.

In a meeting with the Northern Irish party’s leader, Arlene Foster, May will thrash out the terms of a deal that will allow her to get legislation through Parliament.

The PM told the backbench 1922 Committee on Monday that a deal with the DUP would not affect powersharing talks in Northern Ireland or LGBT rights.

On Tuesday Sinn Fein’s seven MPs held a briefing in London with reporters after warning the DUP deal undermines power-sharing talks in the gridlocked Northern Ireland executive, a claim rejected by Mrs Foster. It is due to present its platform for the next session in the Queen’s Speech at the State Opening of Parliament on June 19.

The Queen’s Speech is traditionally written on goatskin parchment paper, which requires several days for the ink to dry, sparking a long waiting period. By tradition, defeat on a Queen’s Speech vote topples the government.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn countered with a bit of previously unforeseen swagger, wearing a huge red rose – his party’s symbol – in his lapel as he sparred with May.