Christopher Shale, David Cameron’s constituency chairman and friend, was found dead at Glastonbury music festival on Sunday, June 26th.
The 56-year-old is thought to have died on Saturday afternoon shortly after receiving a call from Downing Street regarding a controversial leaked memo he had written. It is believed he may have died of a heart attack.
Mr Shale was attending the festival with his wife and family. He was reported missing on Saturday night. After many hours of searching he was eventually found by a festival staff member the next morning slumped in a portable toilet.
It has come to light that an internal memo written by Mr Shale, which describes parts of his local party as being “crass and always on the take”, had been leaked to the Mail On Sunday.
On Saturday lunchtime he had received a call from Downing Street officials warning him not to speak to journalists about the leak. Mr Shale then spoke to Witney constituency agent Barry Norton, who later said that Mr Shale “was quite confident and this [the leaked memo] was not really an issue”.
In a statement on their website, Avon and Somerset police said, “The results of the post-mortem combined with the enquiries conducted into the circumstances surrounding the death indicate it is not suspicious.”
There were earlier reports, including one from festival organiser Michael Eavis, that suggested the death could have been a suicide. These have now been dismissed by the police as inaccurate.
An inquest was opened in Wells on Monday. The hearing heard that the cause of death was “unascertained” and the inquest was adjourned pending further histology and toxicology tests.
Friends believe that Mr Shale, who attended the festival every year, may have suffered a heart attack.
Mr Shale became chairman of West Oxfordshire Conservatives after a successful business career. He was a good friend and support to the prime minister, who said in a statement that he was devastated by the news.
“Christopher was one of the most truly generous people I’ve ever met – he was always giving to others, his time, his help, his enthusiasm, and above all his love of life. It was in that spirit that he made a massive contribution to the Conservative Party,” Mr Cameron said.
