Tory died of natural causes, coroner rules

A senior Conservative who was found dead in a portable toilet at this year's Glastonbury Festival died of natural causes, a coroner has ruled.

Christopher Shale, 56, was found dead in a backstage VIP area at the festival in June this year. He was missing for 18 hours.

At an inquest in Wells Town Hall yesterday, coroner Tony Williams ruled that Mr Shale, the chairman of the West Oxfordshire Conservative Association and a friend of David Cameron, died from heart disease.

The inquest heard that Mr Shale was overweight and asthmatic, and that this put an "an excessive workload" on his heart. His widow Nikki paid tribute to her husband and later hit out at "inaccurate speculation" regarding his death.