May determined to form new government despite election shock

Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday stood by her vow to form Britain's next government and lead the country out of the European Union.

"What the country needs more than ever is certainty," the Conservative leader said, as calls for the premier to resign mounted and a political crisis brewed. 

Sterling plunged against the dollar and the euro as even more uncertainty fed into the complex Brexit process, and European leaders bluntly reminded May that the clock was ticking.

TRT World's Sarah Morice has more from London. 

May, who became prime minister after the June 2016 referendum on leaving the EU, had called the election three years early in a bid to strengthen her hand in the looming Brexit negotiations.

But in a catastrophic setback, the bet failed and she lost her overall majority.

The centre-right Conservatives found themselves eight short of the coveted 326-seat mark after the Labour Party, led by socialist stalwart Jeremy Corbyn, scored hefty gains.

​In a final humiliation, the Conservatives lost the safe west London seat of Kensington, Britain's wealthiest constituency, to Labour by a mere 20 votes after a campaign that targeted the incumbent MP for her pro-Brexit stance.

ay reached out to Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which won 10 seats, to forge a working majority.

The Conservatives and the DUP, which is socially conservative and backs Brexit, are expected to work together on a vote-by-vote basis rather than enter a formal alliance.