Tim Farron

The leader of Britain’s Liberal Democrats pitched his party Friday as the best chance of softening the blows from Brexit, as he began campaigning for an election in which he is hoping to sweep up pro-European votes.

Tim Farron, whose center-left party holds just nine seats but is hoping to make gains in the surprise election on June 8, said only the Lib Dems could prevent a so-called “hard Brexit,” which would involve Britain leaving the European single market when it quits the EU.

He condemned Prime Minister Theresa May’s decision to head for a hard Brexit, saying voters should see the election as a “historic opportunity to change the direction” of the country.

Britain remains deeply divided after last June’s referendum on whether to quit the EU, when 51.9 percent voted for Brexit.

May made the surprise call for an election this week, hoping to capitalize on bitter infighting in the main opposition Labour party and secure a boosted majority for her Conservative party going into two years of gruelling Brexit negotiations with Brussels.

The Lib Dems too are hoping to pinch votes from Labour, which is split on how to approach Brexit as well as the future of its embattled leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Farron, making his first campaign stop in the northern city of Manchester, said the Conservatives “now assume a coronation” but that they had “every reason to be afraid of the Liberal Democrats.”

The Lib Dems were junior partners in a Conservative-led coalition government from 2010 to 2015 but were then crushed in a general election when voters abandoned them due to their broken promise to halt large hikes in university fees.

A YouGov poll released Thursday put the Lib Dems on 12 percent of voting intentions, well behind the Conservatives at 48 percent.

May holds a slim majority of 17 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons and polls suggest she is likely to strengthen her grip on power.

But the premier still warned her party against complacency on Friday.

“I’m not taking anything for granted,” she said on the campaign trail in her home constitutency of Maidenhead, southern England.

“The result is not certain.”