By Joshua Chaffin, George Parker and Alex Barker

Gordon Brown has failed in a last-ditch attempt to head off a key appointment on the European Commission, giving France a central role in recasting Europe’s post-crisis banking and financial services sector.

The prime minister pleaded with José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, in a call late on Thursday to strip financial regulation from the coveted internal market portfolio.

But Barroso rebuffed Britain’s request and instead rewarded months of intense lobbying from Paris by offering the portfolio intact to Michel Barnier, the former French foreign minister.

Brown and the City received some reassurance with the appointment of Jonathan Faull, a well-regarded British bureaucrat in Brussels, who is to become the top civil servant in Barnier’s department. Downing Street also expects British officials to be given important roles in the team of people who support Barroso and Barnier, forming a “triple lock” on key policy issues. Brown’s team said the new Commission was “good for Britain” and described the call to Barroso as “routine”. It expects Barnier to drive reforms “agreed at the G20”. But Brown faced fierce criticism of his decision to overlook the economic posts in favour of pressing for Lady Ashton’s appointment as the EU’s foreign policy chief, against the advice of Lord Mandelson and the Conservatives.

William Hague, shadow foreign secretary, said the lack of a senior economic post was bad for “long-term British interests”. He said: “The Commissions proposals have the potential to do serious harm to our financial services industry.”

One British minister said the line-up of Barroso’s new Commission was “ghastly” and raised questions over his previous commitment to free market principles - a claim Barroso’s team denies. The minister noted that Barroso’s first Commission saw northern European liberals in key economic posts. This is almost a mirror image - one British official called it “an arc of protectionism” - with Belgian, Spanish, French and Italian commissioners in the same big posts.