British Prime Minister Theresa May has accepted that voters' patience with austerity is at an end, the Times of London newspaper reported on Tuesday, citing unidentified sources.

Foreign secretary Boris Johnson, Brexit minister David Davis and other Conservative Party lawmakers told May that she had misjudged the public mood around austerity, the Times said.

Despite her party's expectations of a landslide victory, May lost her majority in parliament in last week's election, pushing her into rushed talks on a support agreement with a small eurosceptic Northern Irish Protestant party.

Since winning power in 2010, the Conservatives have prioritised cutting Britain's budget deficit, which ballooned after the financial crisis.

While the government protected funding for the health service, schools and foreign aid, it cut local services, the justice system and police numbers.