Lord Ashcroft hospitalised with kidney failure: Peer unable to attend Call Me Dave book launch

The peer is recoving in Belize

Lord Ashcroft has co-authored a book about David Cameron (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

Lord Ashcroft missed the book launch of his scathing biography of David Cameron having suffered life-threatening illnesses which left him seriously ill in intensive care for almost three weeks.

The peer suffered from renal failure, septic shock, liver and kidney failure on 24 September, according to his publisher Iain Dale who gave his speech in his place.

The former Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party spent 18 days in intensive care although is said to be on the mend and recovering in Belize where he is a citizen.

Guests at the official unveiling of Call Me Dave, which the peer co-wrote with political journalist Isabel Oakeshott, were said to be stunned by the news. Raheem Kassam, Breitbart London editor-in-chief, said Lord Ashcroft had been treated in a US hospital.

The peer has been criticised by allies of the Prime Minister after making a number of lurid allegations in the book.

Lord Ashcroft and Ms Oakeshott alleged that Mr Cameron was part of a “dope smoking group” with friends while he studied at Oxford. They also claimed Mr Cameron “inserted a private part of his anatomy” into a pig’s head during an initiation ceremony to an Oxford University society.

Friends of the Prime Minister dismissed the allegations as “lurid nonsense”.

Organisers of the Westminster book launch said the peer had suffered a “life-threatening” illness but is now “out of danger”.

They read out a statement from Lord Ashcroft denying that he was motivated by “revenge and malice”.

It said: “While I’m certainly mischievous, I’m not malicious.”

Former Government Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell, Ukip leader Nigel Farage and Vicky Pryce, the ex-wife of former Cabinet minister Chris Huhne, were among the guests at the book launch.

Lord Ashcroft has still been active on Twitter throughout his ordeal and later in the evening, in a sign he was returning to normal, published the results of the latest Opinium poll which put the Tories on 37 per cent – five points ahead of Labour.