May firms up right-wing deal as Brexit talks loom

DUP leader Arlene Foster and MP Nigel Dodds arrive at 10 Downing Street.

The meeting is taking place to see if an alliance can be created to push through the Conservative Party's agenda after a disastrous snap election left her short of a majority in Parliament.

It comes after the Prime Minister apologised to her MPs for the election result telling them "I got us into this mess and I will get us out of it". And - while they may be rescheduled - Brexit talks are technically meant to begin in just five days' time. The Evening Standard, edited by ex-Treasury chief George Osborne, reported that Cabinet ministers have initiated talks with opposition Labour lawmakers to come up with a "softer", less hard-line divorce from the EU.

In a surprise move, Michael Gove was appointed environment and agriculture minister less than a year after the prime minister sacked him as justice minister.

But her election failure means she must now go into Britain's most complex negotiations since World War Two with her eye firmly on the different factions within her Conservative Party, which has been divided over European Union membership for a generation.

"The parliamentary arithmetic is such that we are going to have to work with everyone", he said.

It was "very important" that May understood that her "role is to be co-guarantor of the Good Friday agreement and not to be too close to any particular party in the north", he told reporters on Monday, referring to the agreement that ended the conflict in Northern Ireland.

The DUP are pro-Brexit (whilst the majority of the electorate in Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU), but are keen to ensure that no "hard border" returns to the country and that the United Kingdom remains within the EU's customs union.

Even the idea of an alliance is complicated, however.

But a deal with the DUP also risks destabilising Northern Ireland by increasing the influence of pro-British unionists.

The DUP has consistently blocked motions for gay unions in Northern Ireland's devolved parliament and its members have a history of making offensive anti-LGBT comments.

Meanwhile, Labour is to hold talks with Sinn Fein, amid claims its seven MPs are ready to take up their seats at Westminster to threaten Mrs May's wafer-thin majority further. If that happens, Corbyn will demand a chance to try to form a government by uniting progressive factors in the House of Commons.

Asked about Schaeuble's comments, Macron said the EU's door was still open for Britain as long as the negotiations were not finished, but that it would be hard to reverse course. Michel Barnier warned that no progress had been made in the three months since May triggered Article 50, starting the process of leaving the union.

"I can't negotiate with myself", he added.

TALKS between Theresa May and the DUP failed to finalise a deal to prop up her minority government yesterday - but Arlene Foster voiced hope that it could be signed off "sooner rather than later".

Larry the 10 Downing Street cat sits in Downing Street, in central London, Britain June 13, 2017. The government Cabinet met for the first time Monday after a reshuffle by Theresa May following last week's general election.

They have struggled for years with Irish Catholic nationalists, who want the British province to join a united Ireland.Former prime minister John Major said he was concerned May's plan to govern with the support of the DUP could pitch the province back into turmoil by persuading "hard men" on both sides of the divide to return to violence."The last thing anybody wishes to see is one or other of the communities so aggrieved that the hard men, who are still there lurking in the corners of the communities, decide that they wish to return to some form of violence", Major told BBC radio.