Friday newspaper headlines: Election reaction, Dodd-Frank, HSBC, Aramco

A humiliated Theresa May called today for a “period of stability” as she was urged to resign after her gamble on a snap election backfired. A hung parliament was inevitable after the Tories failed to win in Labour’s heartlands and lost ground in the south as voters rejected her appeal for a personal mandate to negotiate Brexit. - The Times

Jeremy Corbyn said the face of British politics has changed and called on Theresa May to resign after her snap general election left Britain with a hung parliament 11 days before Brexit talks begin. Speaking as he was returned as MP for Islington North, the Labour leader declared: “Politics has changed. Politics isn’t going back into the box where it was before. What’s happened is people have said they’ve had quite enough of austerity politics.” - Guardian

Theresa May's future as Prime Minister and leader of the Conservatives was being openly questioned after her decision to hold a snap election disastrously backfired. With Britain facing a hung parliament, Mrs May pledged to offer "stability" if the Tories end up as the largest party with the most votes, as expected. But 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. - Telegraph

Theresa May’s gamble on a snap election has dramatically backfired after her quest for a “stronger mandate” to deliver Brexit ended up in the humiliation of a hung parliament, leaving her future as prime minister in doubt. Mrs May vowed to offer a “period of stability” but senior Conservative figures said she might be forced to quit and Tory MP Anna Soubry said the prime minister should “consider her position” after running “a disastrous campaign. - FT

Nervous investors will be watching the pound and Britain’s stock market today, spooked by the ‘election result markets feared’ of a hung parliament. Sterling took a tumble last night as shock exit polls revealed that instead of being on course for a General Election victory in which they extended their parliamentary lead, the Conservatives would lose ground and have no overall majority. - Mail

Business headlines

Overnight, the US House of Representatives backed legislation to undo much of Barack Obama’s landmark banking law created after the 2008 economic crisis. Republicans argued that rules designed to prevent another meltdown were making it harder for community banks to operate and hampering the economy. - Guardian

A top City investor has warned against bending the UK’s listing rules to encourage Saudi Arabia to pick London for the £1 trillion-plus stock market flotation of Aramco, saying that to do so would be “highly inappropriate”. Royal London, which manages more than £100 billion on behalf of its customers, said that allowing Saudi Aramco to list only 5 per cent of its shares, despite rules insisting that companies must sell at least a quarter of them, would damage London’s reputation as a financial centre. - The Times

The UK economy was the worst performer in the European Union in the opening months of 2017 as the Brexit vote took its toll, according to official statistics that underscore the challenge facing the next British government. With economic growth of just 0.2% in the first three months of this year, the UK was well behind its European neighbours according to official EU figures. - Guardian

A former HSBC executive accused of foreign exchange market manipulation has been arrested and bailed in the UK ahead of a potential battle over his extradition to the US. Stuart Scott, the bank’s former head of cash trading for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, appeared in a London court earlier this week and was bailed for £100,000. - Telegraph

The European Union wants to give police new powers to obtain information from internet companies including Facebook and Google as part of new measures to fight terrorism. The European Commission has proposed multiple ways to make it easier for police to retrieve data stored in the cloud directly from technology companies after complaints of slow investigations. - Telegraph

BT has fired PWC as its auditor after the firm failed to spot a fraud at its Italian business, which is thought to have continued for up to ten years. PWC declined to comment yesterday, after the telecoms giant issued a brief statement confirming that the BT board had approved the proposed appointment of KPMG from next year. - The Times