Baroness Ashton: EU foreign minister
Updated on 20 November 2009
The European Union has appointed Baroness Ashton as its first foreign minister just ten years after she was working as chairman of Hertfordshire Health Authority.
Just over a year ago she was appointed as the EU's trade commissioner, but she was far less high profile than her predecessor Lord Mandelson.
A Labour peer since 1999, Baroness Ashton, 53, has never held an elected office but she was seen seen as one of the forces that helped the Lisbon Treaty come into force.
It was that Treaty which led to the European Union appointing Belgian Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy as it's first permanent president and Baroness Ashton will work alongside him as high representative for foreign affairs and security policy.
The prestige and power of her position remains to be seen but the early reaction suggests the prime ministers and presidents will still be regarded as the political powers of Europe because neither Mr van Rompuy nor Baroness Ashton are well-known internationally.
Tony Blair was originally touted as a leading candidate for the EU presidency but there was not enough support for him among the EU leaders.
Gordon Brown originally backed Blair's campaign, but he backed Baroness Ashton instead when it became clear there was not enough support among EU leaders for Blair.
After the appointments were announced, Mr Brown said Mr van Pompuy has "integrity and resolve" and said Baroness Ashton gives Britain a "powerful voice" at the EU's top table.
Baroness Ashton profile
Cathy Ashton was born in Upholland, Lancashire, and studied economics at Bedford College, part of the University of London.
After working for CND in the 1970s, she held various jobs, including work to tackle inequality in the business community and on Hertfordshire Health Authority.
She has been married to journalist and pollster Peter Kellner since 1988 and became a life peer as Baroness Ashton of Upholland in 1999 while on a secondment to the Home Office.
She became a junior education minister in 2001, moving to the Department for Constitutional Affairs (now the Ministry of Justice) in 2004.
But it was only when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister in 2007 that she rose to special prominence, being promoted in his first reshuffle to Leader of the House of Lords.
