| Updated Sun, June 11th 2017 at 00:00 GMT +3European Union leaders fear Prime Minister Theresa May’s shock loss of her parliamentary majority raises the risk of failure in Brexit negotiations due to start this month that will usher Britain out of the EU in March 2019. There was concern that a weak minority administration and a possible leadership challenge to May after her electoral gamble backfired might mean further delay to the start of talks scheduled for June 19. But the prime minister said her new government would now prepare for discussions in 10 days time. However, Guenther Oettinger, the German member of the EU executive, was among those warning that a weak British leader may be a problem once talks start. Barnier sounded conciliatory: “Brexit negotiations should start when UK is ready,” he tweeted.

Source: Standard Digital June 10, 2017 18:11 UTC