A SENIOR Tory who was found dead in a toilet at this year’s Glastonbury Festival died of natural causes, a coroner ruled yesterday.

Christopher Shale, 56, who was a friend of Prime Minister David Cameron, was found dead in a backstage VIP area at the festival on June 26.

At his inquest in Wells Town Hall, East Somerset coroner Tony Williams ruled he died from heart disease.

The inquest heard he was missing for around 18 hours before he was found near the Other Stage.

After the hearing, his widow Nikki said: “It has been a cause of great regret to our children, to Chris’s family and all our friends, that so much inaccurate speculation has appeared in the media with regard to the circumstances of his death.

“This has really not helped us at a very, very difficult time. We now need to move forward with the rest of our lives.”

The inquest heard that Mr Shale, the chairman of the West Oxfordshire Conservative Association, was overweight and asthmatic.

Pathologist Dr Basil Purdue said Mr Shale’s weight put “an excessive workload” on his heart. No drugs or alcohol were found in his system.

The day before he disappeared and possibly died, he had complained of feeling unwell.

He was last seen at 12.40pm on June 25 by a friend, Arthur Soames, from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.

Mr Shale failed to turn up for lunch with friends and family, or make contact that afternoon and evening. His wife reported him missing at 12.41am the next day.

When Mr Soames’s son Rupert Soames heard the next morning that Mr Shale was missing, he retraced his steps and came across a locked toilet, whose occupant would not respond. He broke in and found Mr Shale dead.

Mr Williams said: “His death was clearly as a result of natural causes. There is no evidence of a recent heart attack.”

Police found the businessman’s body as he was quoted in the Mail on Sunday bemoaning difficulties his party faced in recruiting new members.

Confusion reigned at Glastonbury after festival founder Michael Eavis said the wealthy businessman’s death could be a “suicide situation”.

Outside of politics Mr Shale was the chief executive of Oxford Resources Ltd, a cost reduction company based in Chipping Norton, close to his home at Old Meadow House, in the village of Over Norton.