Two of Britain's most senior businessmen, Mike Turner, chief executive of BAE Systems, and Sir Nigel Rudd, a non-executive director at the defence company, were last week detained by US authorities investigating bribery allegations.

The two men were detained and issued with subpoenas by officials from the Department of Justice as they landed at Houston airport on Monday. They were kept for about half an hour and had their documents, as well as personal electronic equipment, examined.