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The Democratic Unionist leader and most recent first minister of Northern Ireland, Arlene Foster, says she wants to "bring stability to our nation" by backing Theresa May and the Conservatives to continue in power.
Foster said in Belfast on Friday afternoon that she was entering discussions with May over the details of any arrangement that would prop up a minority government.
Foster said the election in Northern Ireland, which saw 10 DUP MPs, including two new ones, elected to the Commons, was a "great result" for the union.
She confirmed that May had been in contact with her on Friday morning about gaining DUP support for a Tory administration.
"I make no apology for wanting the best for Northern Ireland and all of the union," Foster said at the Stormont hotel in Belfast just across the road from the main entrance to the Stormont parliament, which remains shut down while talks begin next week to restore devolution.
The DUP leader said her party's triumph and the result in Scotland, where the Scottish National party suffered losses, had "sent a clear and resounding message" to those who wished to tear the UK apart.
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DUP figures insist their relationship with May's team has been close since she became prime minister 11 months ago, and that late-night talks had been driven by their dismay at the possibility of Jeremy Corbyn becoming prime minister.
Comment: This alliance - and possibly the Union itself with it - has nowhere to go but down.
The media tried to smear Corbyn by calling him an "IRA terrorism supporter". It didn't work, and now the Tories are planning on forming a government with Loyalist terrorism supporters. Here's the former leader of the 'democratic' unionist party: