Theresa May will this afternoon seek permission from the Queen to form a government, a Downing Street spokesman has said.
The Prime Minister will visit Buckingham Palace at around 12.30pm to speak to the sovereign directly.
The Conservatives are widely expected to do a deal with the DUP, whose 10 MPs would be enough to take them beyond the 326 majority mark, and form an administration at Westminster.
It comes after Mrs May said she has no intention of standing down as Conservative leader, despite calls from her own MPs to consider her position.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has urged her to resign and allow him to form a minority administration, declaring: “We are ready to serve this country.”
“I think it’s pretty clear who won this election,” he said at Labour’s headquarters in central London.
“We are ready to do everything we can to put our programme into operation, there isn’t a parliamentary majority for anybody at the present time, the party that has lost in this election is the Conservative Party, the arguments the Conservative Party put forward in this election have lost.
“I think we need a change.”
The Prime Minister’s situation appeared precarious as Conservative former minister Anna Soubry said she should “consider her position” and take personal responsibility for a “dreadful” campaign and a “deeply flawed” manifesto after choosing to go to the country three years early in the hope of extending her majority.
With 649 out of 650 constituencies declared, the Tories have 318 seats, Labour 261, the SNP 35 and the Liberal Democrats 12.