Theresa May to hold talks with DUP leaders on government deal
Theresa May is set to meet the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party in Downing Street as she seeks a deal to enable the Conservatives to govern.
The prime minister will host Arlene Foster to thrash out the terms of the DUP's backing for her minority government.
Mrs May says they will have no veto on key policies. Ms Foster says her party has the national interest at heart.
MPs are returning to Westminster on Tuesday following the election.
The Commons will choose a new speaker and Lords will begin to be sworn in during the afternoon.
Later, the Prime Minister will hold talks with French President Emmanuel Macron, including looking at how to tackle online radicalisation and terrorism.
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Who are the DUP's 10 MPs?
The Conservatives are having to rely on the support of 10 DUP MPs after they fell eight seats short of winning an overall majority at the general election.
Mrs May apologised to Tory MPs on Monday, accepting personal responsibility for failing to win an outright victory and sacrificing the parliamentary majority she inherited from David Cameron when she became leader last year.
She told a meeting of backbenchers that she had got the party into "this mess" by calling the snap election and now "I'll get us out of it".
'Brexit support'
Her performance was roundly praised by Conservative MPs, some of whom were openly questioning her future over the weekend.
In an article for the Times on Tuesday, the new environment secretary Michael Gove – who has clashed with Mrs May in the past – said she was the ideal person to secure a Brexit agreement that "commanded the widest possible support" given her track record of "seeing through vital jobs to the end".
Amid calls from some MPs for the Conservatives to rethink their Brexit strategy, he said there was a "clear consensus" for leaving the single market and ending free movement while retaining the "maximum access" to EU markets and maintaining co-operation in key areas such as science.
But in an article for the Financial Times, the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier has warned the UK that there is "no time to waste" to get the process – which has 18 months to run – under way. Mrs May will herself meet French president Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday for talks.
Conservative chief whip Gavin Williamson flew to Belfast on Saturday to begin formal discussions with the DUP after the election resulted in a hung parliament.
The expectation is that details of a so-called "confidence and supply arrangement" in which the DUP will guarantee their backing for the Queen's Speech and future government Budgets will be agreed in the coming days.
Source:- http://www.bbc.com/news/election-2017-40255958
