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Sir Michael Rake, deputy chair of Barclays, has ruled himself out of the running to become the bank's chairman. Sir Michael had been considered the frontrunner to replace the incumbent, Marcus Agius. Mr Agius quit earlier this month due to the Libor fixing scandal, but then had to step up to become interim executive chairman following the departure of chief executive Bob Diamond. Barclays has been under pressure to appoint someone from outside the bank. Several top shareholders had protested at the prospect of Sir Michael's appointment, according to the Reuters news agency. Whoever takes over the chairmanship - not to mention the role of chief executive - can also expect to come under close scrutiny from the regulatory authorities, including the Bank of England, whose governor Sir Mervyn King forced the departure of Bob Diamond. Internal inquiry Sir Michael's decision was announced by Easyjet, for whom he is chairman. He is also chairman of BT Group. He would have had to give up both of these roles if he had taken the top job at Barclays. Easyjet said that Sir Michael had informed its board and Mr Agius that he did not wish to be a candidate to fill the vacancy at Barclays. It may mean that Mr Agius, who has been chairman for five and a half years, has to stay on even longer than originally planned while a successor is sought. Remaining candidates are said to include the former cabinet secretary Gus O'Donnell, and Glen Moreno, the chairman of publishers Pearson and former deputy chairman of Lloyds Banking Group. Mr Agius, Mr Diamond and Barclays chief operating officer Jerry del Missier all stepped down at the beginning of July after the bank was fined �290m by the UK and US regulatory authorities for manipulating Libor - a key benchmark interest rate in the global financial markets - over many years. Reports have said that Barclays is set to appoint financial law expert Anthony Sal this week to head a promised internal inquiry into the Libor scandal.