Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron leaps off stage after taking part in a televised debate on May 31, 2017 in Cambridge | Stefan Rousseau via Getty Images The Economist endorses Liberal Democrats in UK election The paper calls June 8 vote ‘a dismal choice,’ but says their endorsement is ‘a down-payment for the future.’

The Economist has backed the EU-friendly Liberal Democrats in the upcoming U.K. general election, it announced Thursday.

Calling the election on June 8 a "dismal choice" between "a backward-looking Labour Party and an inward-looking Tory party," the weekly said Tim Farron's Liberal Democrats come closest to its "classical, free-market liberal values."

The Economist supported the Lib Dems' position on staying in the single market and open borders, and preferred it to Labour's "loony left" policies and Prime Minister Theresa May's "illiberal instincts."

"Brexit will do least damage if seen as an embrace of the wider world, not simply a rejection of Europe," the leader article endorsing the party reads.

The paper said it is under no illusions about the Lib Dems' chances in the election, which polls suggest look grim. "We know that this year the Lib Dems are going nowhere," it said, but called its endorsement "a down-payment for the future" in the hope that British politics may resemble French President Macron's success in carving out space in the center-ground of politics between left and right.

"Our hope is that they become one element of a party of the radical center, essential for a thriving, prosperous Britain."