He recently impressed European policymakers with a speech on policy delivery in Paris and has been focusing on Europe in his attacks on David Cameron and William Hague, lambasting the Conservatives for their decision to break with the mainstream centre-right in Europe and form a eurosceptic alliance with east European rightwingers.

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Diplomats said the foreign secretary was being mentioned increasingly for the post in Paris, as well as in Brussels, not least because he is seen as the most genuinely europhile of senior people in the Brown cabinet.

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Other names being mentioned for the post include Olli Rehn, Finland's European commissioner, and two women, Ursula Plassnik and Dora Bakoyannis, former foreign ministers of Austria and Greece.