Background
Catherine Ashton comes from a working-class family, with a background in coal-mining going back generations. She was the first person in her family to attend university.
Catherine Ashton comes from a working-class family, with a background in coal-mining going back generations. She was the first person in her family to attend university.
Catherine Ashton worked in the public, private and voluntary sector and from 1983-89 she was Director of Business in the Community. From 1998 to 2001she chaired the Health Authority in Hertfordshire, and became a Vice President of the National Council for One Parent Families. In 1999 Catherine Ashton became a life peer. She then took on a ministerial position (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State) in the Department for Education and Skills in 2001, and subsequently in the Department for Constitutional Affairs and Ministry of Justice. She became a Privy Councillor in May 2006. Catherine Ashton was appointed Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Queen's Privy Council in June 2007. As well as Leader of the Lords, she was instrumental in steering the EU's Treaty of Lisbon through the UK's upper chamber.
In 2008, she succeeded Peter Mandelson as Commissioner for Trade in the European Commission. Catherine Ashton became the first person to take on the role of High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy that was created by the Treaty of Lisbon. As High Representative, Baroness Ashton serves as the EU's foreign policy chief.