Baroness Ashton demands extra £23 million to run the EU foreign service

The cost of the European diplomatic corps will rise for the second time in its two years of existence despite Lady Ashton's promise that it would be "budget neutral" when she was appointed EU foreign minister in 2009.

Her 5.7 per cent increase takes the annual bill for European diplomats and embassies to £422 million, at a cost to British taxpayers of £52m in EU contributions at time when the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is implementing deep cuts.

Two weeks ago the House of Commons foreign affairs select committee warned that cuts of almost £40 million to the Foreign Office would lead to a "diminution of the UK's influence and soft power", leaving it with a budget smaller than that of Kent County Council.

Richard Ottaway MP, the committee's chairman, said that Lady Ashton's increase for an EU diplomatic corps was "out of the question" at a time when Britain's own foreign service was being cut back.

"She has to recognise, like the British FCO, that in the era of austerity you have to limit your ambitions and aspirations," he said.

Lady Ashton's above inflation increase was buried within an EU demand for an extra £7.2 billion in cash from national treasuries next year, a 6.8 per cent increase that was attacked as "out of control" by the Government.

The European Commission's 2013 budget announced yesterday will mean that British taxpayers would have to pay an additional £890 million to the EU at a time of painful cuts to public services.

Despite huge public sector job losses across Europe, figures produced yesterday by the commission showed that the EU civil service has been reduced by just six postings over the last year, without any redundancies.

Mark Hoban, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, said: "It is unacceptable for the Commission to propose an inflation-busting budget increase when governments across Europe are making difficult decisions on public spending."

An identical cash increase for Lady Ashton's European External Action Service (EEAS) last year was described as "ludicrous" by David Lidington, the Europe minister, in the Foreign Office.

"The EEAS, along with the rest of the Commission, needs to manage additional spending pressures," said an FCO spokesman.

"That's a task national governments face every day and so the EU must make the same tough decisions."

Lady Ashton, the second best paid female politician in the world, was not present in Brussels for the commission meeting that agreed the EU budget increase for next year because she was travelling to Brunei for talks with Asian ministers on Thursday.

But her office justified the increase to her budget and insisted that she had made "tough choices" despite the overall rise in costs.

"We are making savings wherever possible," said a spokesman. "At the same time, we have a mission, given by the member states, to build the EEAS and are responding to world events and circumstances beyond our control."