UK Prime Minister Theresa May visited Buckingham Palace Friday afternoon to seek permission from the Queen to form a coalition with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).
The talks were in line with DUP leader Arlene Foster's "commitment to explore how we might bring stability to the nation at this time of great challenge", her party said in a statement.
The deal is said to be one on a "confidence and supply" basis.
"As more results started to come through, it became clear that we were the party that had won most seats and most votes and felt it was incumbent on us at a critical time in our the country to form a government in the national interest", she said.
"They are wrong and they need to understand why we take those positions from a faith point of view and why we want to protect the definition of marriage", she said.
The DUP is now meeting to discuss what it has called a "messy" situation, but sources have said talk of an agreement is "premature".
Other big prices to pay for the party's support in Westminster could be the reinstatement of any European Union subsidies that farmers lose after Brexit (worth about £350 million a year) as well as around £400 million of Brussels funding for community development and cross-border projects as part of a dividend for the peace process.
Shadow Chancellor: Labour party ready to form minority government
They were replaced by Gavin Barwell, a former housing minister who lost his seat in the election. However, it's not just the support of another party May needs to ensure.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has called on Mrs May to resign, declaring he is "ready to serve the country" after her snap General Election gamble spectacularly backfired - and a much better than expected poll for his party.
"A senior minister has told me that if he were her, he'd do "a quick deal with the DUP and break for summer".
Several hundred people - many of them Labour voters - protested in central London against the alliance, with chants of "racist, sexist, anti-gay, the DUP has got to go". She said that Ms May agreed to try to use her influence to advance LGBTI rights in Northern Ireland.
In a hint at the approach she wanted, she said: "It is about making sure that we put free trade at the heart of what it is we seek to achieve as we leave".
The DUP has repeatedly used a controversial Stormont voting mechanism - the petition of concern - to prevent the legalisation of same-sex marriage, despite a majority of MLAs supporting the move at the last vote.
The party with the most female lawmakers is the opposition Labour party with almost half of its elected members of parliament (MPs) women, while the smaller Green Party's only elected MP is a woman.
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