May received the queen's approval to form a new government by linking with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, which won 10 seats.
It was a painful reckoning for a prime minister whose election gamble failed in a stunning fashion. The Labour Party gained 32 seats, jumping from 229 to 261, setting back May and the Conservative Party.
The biggest victor was Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Beleaguered British Prime Minister Theresa May is appointing new members of her government after several of them lost their seats in Parliament in this week's general election that proved disastrous for her Conservative Party.
The Labour Party has said it was prepared to form a coalition government, with Mr Corbyn announcing: "We are ready to serve". If May is unable to form a majority coalition, she would nearly certainly be forced to resign. The time seemed right to seek her own mandate from the British people.
Meanwhile, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said his party had "won this election" after its best vote share since 2001, at 40 per cent, fuelled by an extraordinary turnout of students and young supporters. His reconstruction of himself as an amiable man who had spoken to groups like Hamas only in the interests of achieving peace was a media triumph.
"People are crying out for help and he's been working on that, he hasn't really been working on Brexit", she said, while locals browsed bric-a-brac displayed on her daughter's stall.
Conservatives fell 12 seats short of the 326 seats they needed for a majority, and are down from the 330 seats they had before May called for this early election. None of them were "Jeremy" or "Corbyn". The main opposition Labour Party took 262.
But with her authority diminished, May risks facing more opposition to her Brexit plans from both inside and outside her Conservative Party, and some colleagues may be lining up to replace her.
Former Penn State administrators sentenced to jail time in Sandusky case
He said Spanier "devoted a substantial part of his career to the welfare of children, youth, and families". He will serve two months in jail, followed by house arrest and also pay a $5,000 fine, according to Grace.
Speaking outside 10 Downing St., May scarcely acknowledged the election's disastrous outcome, promising to form "a government that can provide certainty".
This was likely to involve an arrangement in which the DUP would support a Conservative minority government on key votes in parliament but not form a formal coalition.
Predictions of Conservative success became more modest as the party's campaign faltered after a series of missteps. This will give a slightly plumper cushion to a Tory majority.
Without the desired larger majority, Ms May will now be in the thrall of two wings of her party that oppose her plans to leave the European Union: "purists" who want a clean break with the bloc and "remainers" who are pressing for closer ties, two Conservative sources said.
Osborne used the front page of his newspaper to predict "Corbyn Chaos" - and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson repeatedly ridiculed Corbyn in the campaign's waning moments. If they are right, President Trump will have a competitor for scandal headlines. "That's going to make it hard for the European Union 27 because they're going to want to know who they're talking to and what their policy is".
When and if that happens, those, mainly in the Conservative party, who want as complete a break as possible with the European Union, will find they are much weakened.
Senior Conservative Gavin Williamson is in Belfast for talks with the pro-Brexit party, a spokeswoman for May's office said. "Markets will likely remain on the back foot while the hard job of putting together a workable government is undertaken".
For many British voters, the feeling after the country's third major vote in as many years was weariness.
Comments