PRESSURE is growing on a weakened Theresa May to abandon her plans for a “hard Brexit” in the wake of her failed General Election gamble.

Following the UK Conservatives’ embarrassing electoral performance, which saw them fall short of an overall majority, Ruth Davidson suggested the Prime Minister should now consider a more “open Brexit” in a move to protect business interests in the UK.

The Scottish Tory leader, who backed Remain in the EU referendum campaign, demanded Mrs May now place economic growth above cutting immigration, urging her UK colleagues to listen to voters after falling short of expectations.

Pro-EU Conservatives pounced on their leader’s weakness to argue for a business-friendly “soft Brexit,” which would keep Britain in the EU’s common market and customs union.

It was suggested that Greg Clark, the pro-Remain Business Secretary, has privately urged business leaders to co-ordinate a push for a softer Brexit.

In the next few days Mrs May will enter talks with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionists to ensure she can cling onto power.

The 13 Conservative successes in Scotland has enabled her to remain in Downing Street but she fell six short of the 326 seats needed to secure an overall majority.

The PM, who has spoken to Arlene Foster, the DUP leader, is hoping that with the backing of her party’s 10 MPs she will have a small working majority. However, it is not known what price the DUP will seek to extract for its support, underlining Mrs May’s vulnerability going forward.

After the SNP saw its number of MPs fall 21 from the 2015 high water-mark of 56 to 35 and Labour and the Liberal Democrats reviving to take seven and four seats respectively, Nicola Sturgeon said she would “reflect carefully” on the result, hinting that she might be prepared to put back her desire for a second Scottish independence referendum.

The First Minister accepted that her party’s plans for another Union vote were “undoubtedly” a factor in the SNP losing a third of its MPs but she stressed there were other factors too.

Ms Sturgeon explained how Brexit and a late surge for Jeremy Corbyn had also been involved but cautioned that "rushing to overly-simplistic judgements" about the election was not the right thing to do.

Her predecessor Alex Salmond and her SNP deputy Angus Robertson were among the biggest casualties in a tactical Unionist surge spearheaded by the Scottish Tories.

Following an audience with the Queen at Buckingham Palace, the PM spoke on the steps of No 10, saying: "What the country needs more than ever is certainty and having secured the largest number of votes and the greatest number of seats in the General Election it is clear that only the Conservative and Unionist party has the legitimacy and ability to provide that certainty by commanding a majority in the House of Commons."

A grim-faced Mrs May said she was confident that she could work with “our friends and allies in the Democratic Unionist Party” to help secure a successful Brexit. “That’s what we will deliver. Now let’s get to work,” she added.

However at Westminster, there is a feeling the PM is now on borrowed time.

Senior Tories expressed anger and exasperation at the way the election campaign had been conducted; some openly joined the likes of Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat leader, and Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour leader, and called for Mrs May to quit.

Heidi Allen, who has just been re-elected to represent South Cambridgeshire, said the PM was “not the leader[the Conservatives] need” and gave her just six months before she would have to quit.

Anna Soubry, the former Business Minister who held onto her Nottinghamshire seat, branded the manifesto “disastrous” and suggested Mrs May “should consider her position”.

But other senior Conservatives warned against a leadership challenge; former party leader Iain Duncan Smith argued it would be a "grave error".

Nigel Evans, the former Deputy Speaker, decried how the leadership had attacked its core constituency – the grey vote – with policies on ending the state pension triple lock, means-testing winter fuel payments and increasing social care costs. "It was an amazing own goal. We didn’t shoot ourselves in the foot; we shot ourselves in the head,” he declared.

Calls also came for the PM to sack her two key aides Fiona Hill and Nick Timothy, thought to be responsible for the controversial social care policy shift, with one senior source saying they should “walk off into the sunset”.

Meantime, a minister reflecting on an expected May reshuffle, suggested the PM was now “too weak” to be able to sack any of her senior colleagues.

Downing Street confirmed that the holders of all the main senior posts, Amber Rudd, Boris Johnson, Philip Hammond, David Davis and Sir Michael Fallon would keep their Cabinet jobs. Although the name of Liam Fox, the Trade Secretary, did not appear on the list.

Elsewhere, the mood within the Labour Party was upbeat, reflecting a result that seemed to portray the winners as the losers and the losers as the winners.

Jeremy Corbyn insisted his party had won the contest with 261 seats, 57 behind the Tories.

Declaring how Labour had confounded all its critics to notch up an “incredible result,” the party leader declared: "We are ready to serve this country."

In a separate development, Paul Nuttall, the Ukip leader resigned after his party failed to secure a single seat.

He said: "A new era must begin with a new leader." His move opens the way, perhaps, for a return to frontline politics for Nigel Farage.