First of all, my understanding of Brexit has mostly come from reading stackexchange, so I apologize if this is a weird question in anyway
I had the understanding that 10 MPs from the Northern Ireland party DUP was the main reason the current party is in power in the UK parliament. Whatever deal Theresa May came up with the EU, it had to be something that DUP would accept, other wise they would rescind their support and pull down the government. The DUP, from what I understand, is more concerned with there being a border between Northern Ireland and mainland UK, rather than a hard or soft Brexit. Please correct me if my understanding has been wrong up to this point.
Few days ago 21 MP's from the ruling party got expelled, which I believe means they retain their MP status but are now independents, and the party will probably not be giving them any tickets for the next election. The number of expelled MP's is much higher than the 10 DUP MP's who have supposedly been keeping the current party in government, and still it has lost it's majority.
Under these circumstances, how important is the DUP's support to the current government if they have already lost their majority anyway? Under the current situation, can the ruling party come up with new alliances without having to appease the DUP?