Britain will be “Venezuela for 20 years” if Labour wins the next general election, Dr Jordan Peterson has warned.

Speaking to The Telegraph, the Canadian psychologist said that it was “highly likely” that Sir Keir Starmer would be elected, but that it would be a “catastrophe”. 

In a wide-ranging interview, Dr Peterson also said that believing people can change gender represents “maximal confusion” and criticised the ideology of “diversity is unity”.

He praised Margaret Thatcher as an “ethically admirable person” and a conservative with a “spine”, the likes of whom has been missing from politics in recent years.

Dr Peterson is a best-selling author, psychologist and Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto, with twenty years’ experience of teaching courses at educational institutions including Harvard University.

Speaking from Toronto, Dr Peterson said: “You guys, you elect a Labour government, you’re gonna be Venezuela for 20 years.

“I’m terrified it would be a catastrophe if the UK voted [in] a Labour government. You’re gonna be in for rough waters if you were foolish enough to do that. But yeah, it’s highly likely,” he said.

Once the richest country in South America, Venezuela has endured a series of crises under decades of socialist rule. Nicolas Maduro, its president, stands accused of tightening his grip on institutions such as the judiciary and the electoral commission, and has most recently threatened to take over an oil-rich region controlled by neighbouring Guyana.

‘Not good. It’s really not good’

Dr Peterson was also critical of his countryman Justin Trudeau.

He warns that the Canadian prime minister’s ideology is deeply confused.

Mr Trudeau is among leaders who “trumpet diversity as our unity”, Dr Peterson said, adding that there is an “endless multiplication of impulsive diversity… and there’s no limit to how much fragmentation that will produce”.

He said: “I think with our confusion about sex itself, we’ve actually hit maximal confusion. I don’t think you can be any more confused than that. Not good. It’s really not good.”

Dr Peterson added: “A culture that thinks that diversity is unity is also a culture that thinks that a man can be a woman. You can’t get more confused than that.”

Mr Trudeau has proclaimed “Diversity is Canada’s strength” and has argued that his country’s strength “is not in spite of our differences, but because of them”, praising “Canada’s commitment to diversity in action”.

A fervent advocate of gender inclusivity, last year the Canadian prime minister launched the country’s first Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan, which aims to build a “more inclusive future for two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and additional sexually and gender diverse people”.

In September, on an international tour designed to position Sir Keir as a statesman on the world stage, the Labour leader met Mr Trudeau. He is said to have sought election tips from the Canadian, his ideological ally in the progressive left movement.

Let stupid ideas die

The Labour Party, under Sir Keir, has struggled to articulate a clear position on trans ideology and decide on the definition of a woman, with gender-critical Labour MP Rosie Duffield having faced backlash from her own party because of her views. Gender-critical feminists believe in two biological sexes that cannot be changed.

In 2017, Dr Peterson faced the wrath of the progressive left in his country when he criticised the addition of “gender expression” and “gender identity” to Canada’s Human Rights Code. The free speech advocate claimed this amendment would make it a hate crime to refuse to use gender-neutral pronouns and rejected it as “compelled speech”.

Dr Peterson said that in order to tackle the fragmentation and confusion caused by these ideologies, it is crucial to recognise that, “We are not moulded in a Petri dish nor are we deer in a forest”. 

He said: “Human beings can let their stupid ideas die instead of them. And because we can learn and transform, we’re not restricted by environmental constraints the same way that other creatures are, we can always make more with less.

“The zero sum Malthusian model [a population growth model which holds that the rate of growth is proportionate to the current population] is not the appropriate model of human existence, and certainly not the appropriate model of human flourishing.”

Dr Peterson believes that the correct model for human society is to cooperate and compete together in “a hierarchy of social order that’s oriented towards the good. And if you set that up, that’s a subsidiary structure”.

“Take responsibility for yourself, take responsibility for your mate and for your children. And then expand that responsibility outward, envelope as much as you can, as you become more skilled.”

Dr Peterson blames the view that identity is individual rather than collective for many of the ills faced by the modern world – climate alarmism, gender identity crisis, family and social breakdown.

He said: “So the idea that your identity is individual, and that you are only what you say you are, is not only absurd and counterproductive, it produces terrible anxiety, and it makes people endlessly lost.”

And so “if you’re looking for meaning in your life, take on responsibility. There’s no difference between voluntary responsibility and meaning. They’re the same thing. And boy, that’s a secret worth knowing”.

‘You’re not free, you’re lost’

The psychologist makes reference to his own clinical work to support this.

“I’ve been making this case for years,” he said. “Young people come up to me all the time and say, you know, I was very lost, and I was having a very bad time of it. And I started to put my life in order and take on responsibility. Now I’m married and I have a child and I have a good job and I’m making lots of money and you know, I’m not depressed and I’m not anxious and the future looks good. And I think I can improve.”

In his best selling book, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, which has sold over seven million copies worldwide, Dr Peterson attempts to motivate his readers through what a review described as a “harsh” but “idealistic” approach.

A married father of two adult children, Dr Peterson is not short of tough love. He said: “If you’re worried about the purpose of your life, you’re a privileged infant. Because you should be so busy juggling the weight that you’ve chosen to carry that you don’t have any time to be thinking about anything else.”

In Peterson’s philosophy, responsibility is key even – or perhaps especially – in the context of freedom. He believes that freedom without responsibility is what a liberal West has adopted as its ideal, where any restrictive obligation is seen as preventing one from “self-actualising”.

“Well, what the hell is left to actualise? What is left of you? You don’t have a wife, you don’t have any friends. You don’t have any children. You don’t take care of your parents who don’t have a job. Oh, now you’re free, are you? You’re not free, you’re lost. Well, you’re free when you’re lost, I suppose because you can wander stupidly in any direction. But that’s not the sort of freedom you want.”

A deeply religious man, having recently led and released a 17-part seminar on the biblical book of Exodus, Dr Peterson leans heavily on religious imagery when illustrating a point. “The vision of freedom in the Exodus narrative, which is the primary narrative of rebellion against tyranny and slavery, is an ordered freedom. It’s a responsible freedom. It’s not an anarchic or hedonistic freedom. That’s the worship of the golden calf.”

Thatcher had a spine

Dr Peterson also talked about how he had come to admire Thatcher.

Reminiscing about his leftist politics in the early 1980s, he said: “You know I didn’t like Margaret Thatcher at all. I was a vegan. What the hell do you know when you’re a kid? Jesus, I hadn’t stopped being a socialist at that point.

“But I didn’t understand until later how effective both Reagan and Thatcher were in relation to the Soviet Union.”

He added: “And Thatcher. Well, she brought the English speaking world back onto the traditional track. She was an ethically admirable person and earned her sobriquet [of the Iron Lady] very effectively. She had a spine. We’ve seen particularly in Great Britain in recent years, and in Canada, the proliferation of conservatives with no spine.”

Sir Keir recently found himself in political hot water with MPs from his own party and the SNP after praising Thatcher for enacting “meaningful change” in an article for The Telegraph. In the face of criticism from his MPs, the Labour leader then accused Thatcher of doing “terrible things” with which he “profoundly disagrees”.

Dr Peterson is also dismissive of fatalism regarding the environmental challenges faced by the world.

He said: “There’s no starvation in the world [now], except for political reasons. [There is] plenty to go around.

“We have hurricanes. That’s a natural disaster. But what if you prepare? What are the preconditions for preparation? And the answer to that is well, subsidiary social organisation, or distributed responsibilities. That also makes the system very resilient. So part of the subsidiary vision is that decision making should be passed down the hierarchy to the most proximal possible level.”

Dr Peterson believes that universities are failing to teach young people what they need, and do not inspire them to take responsibility.

In what he calls “a preposterous ambition in some ways”, Dr Peterson has decided to challenge the monopoly of these institutions by setting up his own online university.

Peterson Academy aims to offer classes taught by academics from Ivy League and Oxbridge universities, with the simple tagline, “Learn how to think, not what to think”.

He said: “We’re trying to find people who have genuine knowledge and to get the hell out of their way, so they can transmit that.”

Faculty terrified to say what they believe

At Peterson Academy, students will learn “a broad range of concepts”, which are “tools for thinking, not lists of facts. A good lecture not only tells you the facts of the matter, but tells you how to embody that and why it’s useful. And then you can negotiate better in the world, navigate better in the world,” he added.

“And we don’t have an HR department. Or a DEI (diversity, equality and inclusion) consultant to lead any of that.”

Expecting to launch in late January next year, the Peterson Academy will offer courses for a modest annual fee of $480 (£378). These courses will be available for anyone to join, with a conservative estimate of 30,000 students taking up places by the end of 2024.

Dr Peterson is clear why established academics would want to be a part of this plan.

“Because the institutions treat them abysmally. They pay nothing. And the faculty are terrified of saying what they believe,” he said. 

“I’m going to bring them to Miami, and I’m going to treat them so well that they’re thrilled, I’m going to offer them a better financial deal,” he continued. “I’m going to say, you teach exactly what you love, in whatever way you see fit. And if we can do anything to help you let us know. And then we’re going to bring that to everyone.”

He insisted that he was not overly worried about a lack of formal accreditation for the academy’s courses.

“The accreditation is only important for two reasons,” he said. “One is it’s a path to graduate school and that’s going to be a problem for us. But the other pathway is to employment. And all sorts of corporations are already stating publicly that they no longer regard a university degree as a stamp of accreditation. So why the hell would I pursue that?”

Peterson Academy’s ambition is to truly “universalise” its courses, Dr Peterson said, including using the latest technology such as artificial intelligence.

“I got a video the other day of me delivering the lecture in Spanish, right in my voice, with my intonation with the lips matching the language perfectly. So we can take all our courses and translate them, they can already do this with twenty different languages.”