There is so much at stake on Thursday. Rarely have we faced such a stark choice in a general election.

Down one path: a Boris Johnson majority, propelling us towards a disastrous hard Brexit on WTO terms at the end of 2020, with countless years of negotiations ahead.

Threatening to rip up the Human Rights Act, restrict judicial review and undermine the very rule of law itself. Pursuing nasty, counterproductive policies on immigration, welfare and criminal justice. Ducking scrutiny and lying to the public.

It's a very dark path indeed. But there is another option.

No, not Jeremy Corbyn. Thankfully his extreme views mean he won't come close to winning a majority. His abhorrent failure to tackle anti-semitism within his own party means that, like Johnson, he is not fit to be Prime Minister. Liberal Democrat MPs will never vote to put either of them in Number 10.

What the Liberal Democrats can do – with your support – is win enough seats from the Conservatives to prevent them winning a majority and taking us down that dark, destructive path. Every vote for the Liberal Democrats is a vote to stop Boris and stop Brexit.

But it's not just about what we'll stop. Every vote for the Liberal Democrats is also a vote for our ambitious plan to build a brighter future.

Crucial to our plan is safeguarding the rule of law, championing individual rights and standing up for civil liberties. Liberal Democrats will always defend the Human Rights Act, resist any attempt to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights and oppose any laws that unnecessarily erode civil liberties.

We will strengthen rights protections by creating a new right to affordable, reasonable legal assistance. After all, access to justice is vital for individuals to enforce their other rights and to defend themselves from injustice. So we'll invest an extra £500 million a year to restore Legal Aid, making the system simpler and more generous.

And we will scrap the Conservatives' nasty "hostile environment" – which has seen far too many people wrongfully denied their rights, detained and even deported – and build a fair, effective immigration system in its place.

On Thursday, you can choose this brighter path. You can stop Brexit and build a fairer society where rights and freedoms are respected. Vote Liberal Democrat.

Dr Phillip Lee is the Liberal Democrat's spokesperson for justice, and an MP standing for Wokingham in the 2019 election.

Read the other parties' pitches to the legal industry: