Frenchman to win Europe's top finance job

Gordon Brown came under fire today as a Frenchman looked likely to win the key European Union job drawing up rules for the City and financial services.

The expected appointment of Michel Barnier, a former French farm minister, will encourage critics, including Lord Mandelson, who think the Prime Minister made a mistake in allowing France and Germany to carve up the most powerful economic portfolios in the new European Commission.

Mr Brown last week claimed a negotiating victory when British commissioner Baroness Ashton became Europe's first High Representative on foreign affairs. But Business Secretary Lord Mandelson feared that Lady Ashton would lack the clout to dominate foreign policy, while the appointment of a Briton to such a high profile post would hamper the UK from securing more influential seats in the EC cabinet.

Former Conservative minister Michael Fallon jeered that Mr Brown had been "outwitted" in the talks, adding: "We will have a French commissioner regulating the City of London whilst Baroness Ashton hands out the Ferrero Rocher."

The new commissioner will oversee tense arguments over a common level of corporate tax and there are rumours of plans to draw up an EU law on market infrastructure by next July to make share and derivatives trading less risky.