Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has confirmed he will not stand as MP in the next general election.

After four years in the role, Wallace said 'I'm not standing next time' in an interview with the Sunday Times. His tenure makes him the longest serving Conservative defence minister since Winston Churchill who held the post from 1940 to 1945.

Wallace, MP for Wyre and Preston North, added that he will also leave Rishi Sunak's cabinet in the next reshuffle which is expected to take place in September. He ruled out resigning 'prematurely' and forcing a by-election.

His departure comes following reports that he was 'set to quit' Government after he missed out on becoming Nato secretary-general.

He previously expressed an interest in standing for the role but the current chief, Jens Stoltenberg, was given another year in charge despite military alliance officials dismissing the claims earlier in the year.

Wallace has played a key role in responding to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and was a close ally of Boris Johnson. 

He previously said he remains supportive of Rishi Sunak and the Government and the departure would not be related to the Conservative Party's current challenges.

In his interview with the Sunday Times, he admitted that he told Sunak of his plans to stand down on June 16 and he had hoped to make the announcement this summer. 

Wallace is hugely popular among Tory members and had previously not ruled out a future bid to become the party's leader - although he twice declined to stand for the leadership last year in the contests to replace Boris Johnson and then Liz Truss.

He served as a Conservative member of the Scottish Parliament from 1999 until 2003. 

He then entered Westminster after he was elected as an MP for Lancaster and Wyre in 2005 and went on to become an MP for Wyre and Preston North in 2010.

Wallace currently holds a 16,781 vote majority in the north west constituency following his re-election in 2019. 

He was appointed Secretary of State for Defence on 24 July 2019 following three years spent as the Minister of State for Security at the Home Office. 

He told the Sunday Times: 'I took over a department that had suffered 30 years of cuts and conceded that the whole of government was about health and education, while defence was just a discretionary spend. 

'What I hope I've managed to do the last four years is unlock genuinely new money and win the argument that defence is core.' 

Last week, the Prime Minister shut down comments from Wallace in which he suggested Ukraine should show 'gratitude' for the military support it had been given.

Wallace had made the remark after the country's President Volodymyr Zelensky branded it 'absurd' for Nato to insist there were still conditions for his nation to meet before it could gain membership once the war with Russia is over.

Zelensky later said: 'I believe that we were always grateful to the United Kingdom.

'I don't know what he meant and how else we should be grateful.'

Wallace is the longest continuously serving minister in Government, having been security minister under Theresa May before being promoted to Defence Secretary by Johnson and continuing the role under his two successors.

All 13 of NATO's previous permanent secretary-generals have been male, which has pressured the alliance to appoint a female chief when Stoltenberg leaves after his nine years in charge.