BONANZA FOR EU HIGH REPRESENTATIVE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS ON LEAVING OFFICE

Research by The Daily Telegraph has established that Lady Ashton, who finishes her job as High Representative of Foreign Affairs in October this year, will be paid € 162, 349 a year, 55 per cent of her basic salary, until the end of 2017.

The "transitional allowance" does not require her to do any work at all and she will be paid under reduced rates of EU "community" tax, rather than the standard British rates of taxation for high-income earners. The allowance is defended as "the price for the total independence" of senior EU officials like Lady Ashton, who is also a vice-president of the European Commission, who must also "ask permission for any job they would like to do for 18 months after leaving.

On leaving her job on an annual gross salary, including allowances, of € 349,681 making her the second highest paid female politician in the world, Lady Ashton will be paid one month's salary, the sum of € 29 140 as well beginning the transitional payments "on the day after leaving office". The allowance will not be reduced unless she earns over € 162,957 in additional income, allowing Lady Ashton to take up her seat in the House of Lords, where she will be entitled to € 365 in untaxed daily allowance for sittings of the unelected chamber, without loss of EU payments.

In 2021 on reaching retirement age, Lady Ashton will become eligible for her EU pension which will be worth € 74,182, over three times the average in Britain and also covered by the reduced rates of "community tax" paid by European civil servants.