The latest in a string of sensational political upsets to roil Western democracies has left the U.K.'s Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May clinging to power thanks to the support of a small Northern Irish party instead of boosting her parliamentary support as she had hoped. While market reaction, including the sharpest fall in the pound in eight months, has been tempered by hopes for a softer Brexit, she must now hold together a fragile majority as she tries to strike a deal on leaving the European Union with a hard-bargaining Brussels.
The Conservatives fell short of an overall majority in the June 8 election, losing 12 seats. The party secured 318 seats in the 650-seat parliament, with one constituency left to report, but indications June 9 that Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, with 10 seats, would support them allowed May to visit the Queen to receive assent to form a government.
