May narrowly wins UK confidence vote

British Prime Minister Theresa May narrowly won a confidence vote in parliament on Thursday, highlighting the weakness of her Conservative Party which lost its majority in a shock general election result earlier this month.

Only with support from the small ultra-conservative Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), was May's legislative programme -- known as the Queen's Speech -- approved after 323 votes in favour and 309 against in the 650-seat parliament.

May's minority government had earlier announced it would change abortion rights for Northern Irish women ahead of a threatened revolt by MPs in a separate vote.

The announcement led the opposition Labour Party to withdraw an amendment to the Queen's Speech demanding the state-run National Health Service (NHS) in England stop charging women coming from the province, where abortion is illegal except when the life of the mother is in danger.

Just hours before it went to a vote, ministers wrote to MPs promising to stop the charges.

May's personal authority is deeply damaged after calling the election three years early, hoping to go into Brexit negotiations with a strengthened mandate. But instead of a landslide win she suffered a rebuff from voters which has left her exposed.

May cut short a trip to Berlin on Thursday with European allies ahead of next week's G20 summit, to ensure she was present for the vote.

The majority of the bills in the Queen's Speech concerned Britain's departure from the European Union, on which the first formal negotiations took place last week.