British Prime Minister Theresa May’s gamble of calling snap polls spectacularly backfired on Friday with the British electorate delivering a hung Parliament and forcing her to stitch together an alliance with a small Northern Irish party for staying in power.
Ms May, jolted by the electoral setback, however, remained defiant to calls for her resignation and asserted that she will form a government with the informal backing of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).
“I have just been to see Her Majesty the Queen, and I will now form a government — a government that can provide certainty and lead Britain forward at this critical time for our country,” a grim-faced May said in a statement delivered outside 10 Downing Street.
The best-selling newspaper Sun claimed that senior members of the party had vowed to get rid of May, but would wait at least six months because they feared a leadership contest could propel Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn into power. This, in effect, would make her a lame duck Prime Minister.
In an editorial, The Times of London accused Ms May of creating “a national emergency” by misjudging the mood of the country and that she was now left “fatally wounded.”
