LONDON ��U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May assembled a government by making a deal with a Northern Irish party.
May reached a deal with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, which has 10 members of Parliament, to support the Conservatives, a Downing Street spokesman said.
May leads a brittle government as the U.K. prepares to start talks on leaving the European Union. She told German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a phone call Saturday that she would start Brexit talks as planned in the next couple of weeks.
Mounting criticism and a spirit of vendetta claimed the jobs of two of May's closest advisers. Fiona Hill and Nick Timothy resigned after the snap election that wiped out the Conservatives' Tories' parliamentary majority.
The deal with the DUP in Northern Ireland is on a "confidence and supply" basis, which means the party would provide support to block no-confidence votes and pass budgets. Under the deal, May could accept some DUP policy proposals in exchange for their support, similar to the Labour-Liberal Democrat alliance in 1977.
Founded by Protestant firebrand Ian Paisley at the height of the Northern Ireland conflict in the early 1970s, the DUP is likely to ask for more money to be spent on the region, as well as specific concessions.
Some prominent Conservatives are uncomfortable with the plan to form a parliamentary alliance with the pro-Brexit DUP. Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, expressed those doubts Friday after speaking to May.
"I was fairly straightforward with her and I told her that there were a number of things that count to me more than the party," Davidson told the BBC.
In her phone call with Merkel, May said the first Brexit talks would focus on reaching a "reciprocal agreement" on EU citizens living in the U.K. and U.K. citizens living abroad "at an early stage."
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(Eddie Buckle, Thomas Penny, Tim Ross, Ian Wishart and Jeremy Hodges contributed to this report.)
