THE: Baroness Ashton is expected to stand down within months after widespread criticism that she has failed in the European Union foreign minister post she had been expected to fill for five years.
Less than six months into the job as EU High Representative for foreign affairs, The Daily Telegraph has learned that colleagues believe Lady Ashton, the best paid female politician in the world, is "on the verge of resignation".
Senior officials predict that the Labour peer, 54, could step down later this year after being politically damaged by accusations that she is too inexperienced and weak to be EU foreign minister, a post created by the Lisbon Treaty.
"Every day is an uphill struggle," said a European Commission official. "No one predicts she can stay five years, not even she."
Lady Ashton has come under fire from powerful countries led by France, for allowing the Commission to seize too much control of a new EU diplomatic service that she is building from scratch.
Her lack of political authority has been blamed for a failure to stamp out bureaucratic Brussels in-fighting over who will control the new European External Action Service, with 7,000 diplomats manning over 130 embassies around the world. >>> Bruno Waterfield in Brussels | Friday, April 30, 2010
