May on the ropes as election crushes Tory hopes

The Conservatives are traditionally more popular than Labour when it comes to security, but May suddenly found herself on the back foot after terror attacks occurred in Manchester and London, leaving 30 dead and around 150 injured.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn improved his own majority in his north London seat, but capitalized on a last-minute surge in popularity by gaining a significant number of seats for his party throughout Britain.

"The country needs a period of stability and whatever the results are the Conservative Party will ensure we fulfil our duty in ensuring that stability so that we can all, as one country, go forward together", she said. Having started out with a House of Commons majority of 17 and a lead in the polls of 24 percent over Labour, May has moved backwards. Media reports suggest she will continue.

"Certainly that's what's expected", a source said.

With 649 out of 650 constituencies declared, the Tories had 318 seats, Labour 261, the SNP 35 and the Liberal Democrats 12.

The other big winners were Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party's (DUP) MPs.

Britain's surprise-laden general election recorded the strongest level of turnout in two decades, according to official results, as voters cast support for the two major parties in an otherwise indecisive poll that saw the ruling Conservatives lose their parliamentary majority.

In order to gain a single point majority, parties need to gain 326 seats, which May has manifestly failed to do.

May had spent the campaign denouncing Corbyn as the weak leader of a spendthrift party that would crash Britain's economy and flounder in Brexit talks, while she would provide "strong and stable leadership" to clinch a good deal for Britain.

Alex Salmond, former leader of the SNP, also lost his seat.

The Tories lost seven frontbenchers, with ministers Jane Ellison, Simon Kirby, Gavin Barwell, James Wharton, Nicola Blackwood and Rob Wilson going down to defeat, along with Cabinet Office minister Ben Gummer, the author of the widely criticised Tory manifesto. Their former leader, Nick Clegg, who was deputy prime minister from 2010 to 2015, lost his seat.

"Without a government, there's no negotiation", he said Friday morning by phone on Germany's Deutschlandfunk radio.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd and Education Secretary Justine Greening hung onto their seats by the skin of their teeth with much reduced majorities.

Instead, she risked an ignominious exit after just 11 months at Number 10 Downing Street, which would be the shortest tenure of any prime minister for nearly a century.

"If she had got the majority she wanted, she would have been a supreme political colossus", he said.

'I would have thought that's enough to go, actually, and make way for a government that will be truly representative of all of the people of this country'.

The survey taken at polling stations across the United Kingdom suggests the party could get 314 MPs when all the votes have been counted after Thursday's poll.

Asked if Mrs May could remain as Tory leader, Ms Soubry told the BBC: "That is a matter for her".

Mrs May drove direct from the Maidenhead count to Conservative HQ in London, where she was hunkered down in talks with aides as dawn broke before moving on to 10 Downing Street.

"It is clear that this election has left her authority deeply wounded, perhaps fatally", said Paul Goodman, a former lawmaker and editor of the ConservativeHome website.

May earned a reputation as a dogged minister when leading the interior ministry under David Cameron, but never gained acceptance among the prime minister's cosmopolitan inner circle.

"I think we need a change". "I'll fight tooth and nail to keep her in place".

Released at the close of voting at 9 p.m. GMT, the polls also give the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) 34 seats (losing 22) and Liberal Democrats 14 seats (winning 6).