Clinging on to her job, Britain’s May appoints new ministers

People living in Britain are waking up to uncertainty as Prime Minister Theresa May ignored calls to stand down after the ruling Conservative Party lost an overall majority in parliament in a general election on Thursday.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, riding a wave of acclaim for his party’s unexpectedly strong showing, called on May to resign.

A failure to get legislation through parliament could eventually result in the need for another election.

With talks due to start in Brussels in ten days time, Mr Tusk said it was their “urgent task” to get on with the negotiations in “the best possible spirit”. Current projections give the DUP 10 seats in the House of Commons and the Conservatives 319, enough to form a working majority.

May’s aides, Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill, announced on Saturday that they had quit following sustained criticism of the campaign within the party. She is expected to meet with her newly-reassembled ministerial team over the weekend in an attempt to quell any rebellion within Tory ranks. The main opposition Labour Party surpassed expectations by winning 262.

The Tories are the biggest party with the most MPs but they have further divided themselves and the nation over the last seven weeks.

After a brief meeting with Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, May said Friday the new government will guide Britains exit talks from the European Union, which are set to begin in just 10 days.

“And then it is up to other parties if they want to support us”.

Her decision, reluctant or not, seemed at the time to promise a sure-fire win for a leader who had never led her party into an election.

Stephen Gethins, the party’s spokesman on Europe at Westminster, said Mrs May must rethink her Brexit plan after the snap General Election result on Thursday in which the Tories lost seats.

If she is to succeed in delivering the wishes of 52 percent of the public and take Britain out of the European Union, she must find a way to secure the full support of her party to pass legislation preparing for and enacting the departure.

With May severely weakened and forced to govern as head of a minority government, Britain’s position on Brexit has suddenly become much murkier, and it isn’t clear the embattled Prime Minister has the political strength, let alone the public backing, to force through her original hard Brexit vision.

Meanwhile, the British pound was trading lower by more than 1.50 percent heading into Friday’s USA equity trading session but was lower by more than 2 percent earlier in the morning.

“I obviously wanted a different result last night”, a grim-faced May acknowledged, promising she would “reflect on what happened”.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Britain Friday to quickly launch Brexit talks, saying “We are ready for the negotiations”. In the end she chose the former.

“The message of the election is, have fair talks with the European Union and think again whether it’s actually a good thing for Great Britain to exit the European Union in this way”.

May made no reference to her party’s damaging losses, leading the Evening Standard, edited by former Tory finance minister George Osborne, to splash the front-page headline “Queen of Denial”.

But Islamist attacks in London and Manchester have put her under pressure over her six years as interior minister, while campaign missteps have dented her reputation as a safe pair of hands. “You will have a very fractious parliament”.

But there is only a two-year timeframe for sealing a deal, under a process unleashed by May herself on March 29 and further delayed by her own election gambit.

“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 stares into the abyss”, wrote The Times, while Conservative-supporting The Sun tabloid said succinctly: “She’s had her chips”.

Above all, investors are anxious about the general uncertainty surrounding the country – whether a bruised May will be able to govern effectively or whether she may eventually resign. “People in the United Kingdom, the US and elsewhere want governments that represent all the people, not just the 1%”.

Numerous key cabinet posts have already been declared as unchanged from the previous government, including Philip Hammond as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Amber Rudd as home secretary, Boris Johnson as foreign secretary, David Davis as Brexit secretary and Michael Fallon as the in-charge of the ministry of defence.