Stay With Me star Sam Smith has ruled himself out of the running to sing the new Bond theme, and tipped Ellie Goulding to perform the honours.

The singer, who has been heavily tipped to follow in the footsteps of acts including Adele and Dame Shirley Bassey, told Capital FM he definitely was not doing it.

He told the station’s breakfast show: “People seem to think I’m doing it but I have no idea what’s going on.

Sam Smith
Sam Smith (Chris Pizzello/AP)

“I’m being deadly serious. I think I would know by now.

“I heard Ellie Goulding was going to do it, it’s definitely not me.”

Sam is not the first big name to rule himself out – Ed Sheeran previously said his voice was too “wet” to perform the theme for the next 007 film.

Ellie Goulding
Ellie Goulding (Ian West/PA)

Spectre, which stars Daniel Craig as the secret agent with a licence to kill and Christoph Waltz as the villainous Franz Oberhauser, is set for release in November.

The 24th film of the hugely successful series, directed by Sam Mendes, comes after the success of Skyfall which grossed 1.1 billion US dollars (£700 million) worldwide.