Tory chairman found dead at Glastonbury

A senior member of David Cameron's constituency team has been found dead at Glastonbury festival.

Christopher Shale, chairman of the West Oxfordshire Conservative Association, was discovered by police officers in a backstage toilet just after 9am this morning.

No official cause of death has been given and police have cordoned off the area while the circumstances surrounding the incident are investigated.

Organiser Michael Eavis said that Shale's death was: "very very sad... I can't say too much about it".

However, although Eavis initially said on Sunday morning that he had been told the death was "a suicide situation", police sources have reportedly since said that they do not believe Shale took his own life.

The Daily Mail reports that friends of the 56-year-old say they were told he may have suffered a heart attack the day before he was found.

Shale helped run the Prime Minister's Witney constituency office and is said to be a close friend of Cameron's.

Inspector Chris Morgan of Avon and Somerset Police told BBC News: "A male was found down by the press office in the toilet area. At the moment we are working to establish the cause of the gentleman's death."

Shale features in a strategy document leaked in the Mail on Sunday, in which he says there is "no reason" to join the Conservative party and "lots of reasons not to".