The prime minister has promised to "guide the country through the crucial Brexit talks that begin in just 10 days and deliver on the will of the British people by taking the United Kingdom out of the European Union".

She added:

Theresa May says the Conservative party and the DUP will work together, having "enjoyed a strong relationship over many years".

Brexit negotiations will continue, on the same timetable as before, says Mrs May.

Theresa May says her government will "provide certainty" and work to keep the country "safe and secure".

Joe Miller
Business reporter

Image source, Getty Images

It's a strange day when German business leaders - hardly known for their Bolshevism - are tentatively raising their glasses to toast a favourable election result for a left-wing, pro-borrowing, high-spending candidate.

And yet that is what many boardrooms from Berlin to Baden Wurttemberg will be doing this morning, however discreetly, after Jeremy Corbyn outperformed expectations and ate into the Conservative Party's majority.

The reason for this embrace, simply, is the single market.

Read more

After just over 20 minutes, Theresa May leaves the palace, where she's been having an audience with the Queen. We expect to hear from her shortly.

The third count in Kensington is due to start at 18:00 BST.

Results for the west London seat, won by the Conservatives in 2015, were said to be very close after the second count.

Image source, PA

Theresa May has been in Buckingham Palace now for about 20 minutes. The BBC's royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell says he expects the audience to take about 30 minutes in total.

Meanwhile, a lectern has been placed outside 10 Downing Street in readiness for her return, when she will be expected to address the waiting press.

The Scottish First Minister says her party "stands ready" to play a part in a progressive alliance and launches a tirade against the Conservatives. "We will work with others if it is at all possible to keep the Tories out of government," says Ms Sturgeon.

Ms Sturgeon say Mrs May called an election knowing the result would come just 11 days before "the most important negotiations in the UK's modern history" were due to start.

The UK general election has ended in a hung parliament - could the Democratic Unionist Party's 10 MPs be kingmakers?

Emily Maitlis
Newsnight Presenter

There was another bubble and we missed it... As I write, we still await the result from Kensington. It doesn't get more True Blue than that - and yet Kensington has already, I hear, been twice recounted. They've now suspended further counting as a result of drooping eyelids at the count.

The very notion that Kensington could turn red is the stuff of nightmares for the Conservatives. It is the kind of shifting tectonic plate that signals the opening up of the ground.

Read more.

Adam Pinder-Smith
BBC Local Live, Yorkshire

A man from Doncaster who dressed as a fish finger during the general election campaign while standing as an independent against Tim Farron in the Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency has failed in his bid to oust the Lib Dem leader.

Image source, Getty Images

Mr Fishfinger finished fourth in the poll behind the Lib Dems, the Conservatives and Labour:

During the night Mr Fishfinger spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria about why he stood dressed like he did:

BBC business editor Simon Jack explains how the election outcome caught financial markets by surprise and affected the pound.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Newspaper columnist Owen Jones has said "politicians for too long have made a disgraceful decision that the young will not come out and vote, so they can do what they want to them".

Speaking to Nick Robinson about a reported rise in young voters turning for the general election, Mr Jones said "We've seen a stale policy offer from politicians who, at best, will just tweak the system" and that the Labour Party offered a different "vision".

Of Nick Robinson's suggestion that the Labour Party's manifesto pledges for the young acted as a "giant bribe", Mr Jones said it was "astonishing logic that by being one of the wealthiest countries on the face of the earth and using that wealth to solve injustices and remove debt from people, that's a bribe".

Leo Varadkar, who is to be formally voted in as Taoiseach in Ireland next week, says:

Can a minority government work?

In a blog post, external, Akash Paun, from the Institute of Government, points to the experience of the SNP at Holyrood - where Alex Salmond governed for four years before winning a majority - as evidence that building a majority on an issue-by-issue basis can work.

He says this relies on a combination of five approaches:

• Managing expectations
• Keeping a strategic focus
• Building relationships with backbenchers and opponents
• Making small concessions
• Brinksmanship

The alternative is a more formal "confidence and supply" agreement which involves securing the backing of a minority party on key votes.

"For the government, they provide the security of knowing they are not in danger of defeat at every key vote, and without having to give up ministerial posts or negotiate the entire policy programme with another party," he says.

"For smaller parties, 'confidence and supply' deals allow them to achieve specific policy objectives without having to support the entire government programme and thereby lose their voice in Parliament."

Image source, AFP/Getty

A bit more from Tim Farron, speaking a little while ago in central London: