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Britain will end up like France – engulfed in civil unrest – if we don’t tighten our borders, Kemi Badenoch has warned. The Conservative leader called on the Government to make it more difficult to gain British citizenship.

It comes as France has been rocked by violent riots after weeks of student protests snowballed into a nationwide revolt. Mrs Badenoch also hit out at Andy Burnham for wanting to drag Britain back into the EU, warning that civil unrest in France and a German chancellor on the brink of being ousted are not a great advertisement for the bloc.

Speaking at a press conference, Mrs Badenoch admitted that too many people came into the UK under the previous Tory government, with those individuals now qualifying for indefinite leave to remain. Mrs Badenoch added that she “knows we made a mistake” and “holds [her] hands up to it”.

She added: “What I am interested in is how we fix this problem. It should not be so easy to get British citizenship, which is what ILR basically fast tracks you to.”

She added: “Being a British citizen is a privilege – it is not something you get like a ‘buy one, get one free’ in a supermarket. We have to do better than that, and Labour need to focus on how to make sure that our immigration system is fit for the world we live in.”

When asked about immigration reform, she added: “We will support Shabana Mahmood if she toughens up the system.” The Tory leader suggested that the Home Secretary is “not going far enough”, but warned Labour ministers not to bow to pressure from their own MPs to water down reforms.

Mrs Badenoch added: “I am afraid we are going to see a lot more problems in the country. I don’t want us to end up with how France is ending up, with so much civil unrest. Politicians need to take responsibility – we will help Shabana if she takes responsibility.”

The Tory leader’s comments come after a Cabinet row over immigration reforms intensified when Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh attacked plans to make foreigners wait longer for permanent residency.

The Home Secretary wants to double the time migrants must live in the UK before being eligible for indefinite leave to remain from five to 10 years and apply it retrospectively to those already here. But Ms Fahnbulleh warned that extending the wait was a threat to “building cohesion” and said Labour must “challenge divisive rhetoric”.

Mrs Badenoch also took aim at Mr Burnham’s desire to drag Britain closer to the EU. She blasted: “This belief that absolutely nothing good can happen to us unless we are in the EU, is for the birds.

“France is in the EU, it is on fire. Germany is in the EU, look what is happening to their economy […] their government is falling apart.

“We need to stop pretending that the EU is the answer to every single problem. Just as we need to stop pretending that all of the problems that we had in the EU would have been solved by leaving.

“Both of these positions are nonsensical – there are many things that we can do out of the EU.”

Meanwhile, in France, cars are being set alight, and shops ransacked as thousands of protesters and rioters take to the streets. French leaders and mayors have imposed curfews across several major cities as they fight mob chaos on the country’s embattled streets.