Portillo not interested in BAE Systems job

Former British Defence Secretary Michael Portillo has ruled himself out of the race to become the next chairman of defence contractor BAE Systems.

He dismissed a report in the Sunday Telegraph that he was seeking to replace Richard Evans as chairman of the FTSE 100 company as “entirely wrong”.

The newspaper said Mr Portillo had approached the board in the past two weeks to indicate his desire to replace Evans, who will retire in May.