Holds talks with Nothern Irish party leader Arlene Foster

British Prime Minister Theresa May neared a deal with a Northern Irish Protestant party to save her premiership on Tuesday as she came under intense pressure to soften her approach to Brexit days before the start of formal EU divorce talks.

Ms. May’s botched election gamble, which saw her lose her majority, left her so weakened that supporters of closer ties with the European Union publicly demanded she take a more consensual and business-friendly approach to Brexit.

In an attempt to avoid a second election that could deepen Britain’s worst political turmoil since last June’s shock vote to leave the EU, Ms. May held talks with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) on Tuesday.

She met DUP leader Arlene Foster, whose eurosceptic Northern Irish party has 10 parliamentary seats, for over one hour of talks in Downing Street, though both Ms. May and Ms. Foster later left through different exits. “Discussions are going well with the government,” Ms. Foster said on Twitter. “We hope soon to be able to bring this work to a successful conclusion.”

A Downing Street spokesman declined to comment. But a deal with the DUP risks destabilising the political balance in Northern Ireland by increasing the influence of pro-British unionists who have struggled for years with Irish Catholic nationalists who want Northern Ireland to join a united Ireland.

Fears of violence

Former Prime Minister John Major said he was concerned a deal with the DUP could thrust the province back towards violence nearly two decades since a U.S.-brokered peace deal brought peace to Northern Ireland.

“The last thing anybody wishes to see is one or other of the communities so aggrieved that the hard men, who are still there lurking in the corners of the communities, decide that they wish to return to some form of violence,” Mr. Major told BBC radio.