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Tom Morgan/PA Wire/Press Association Images
Police on the scene backstage at Glastonbury this afternoon.
# Glastonbury
David Cameron’s constituency chairman found dead at Glastonbury
The UK prime minister said he was “devastated” by Christopher Shale’s death in the backstage area at the music festival.
Updated 2.45pm
THE CHAIRMAN OF David Cameron’s constituency has been found dead in a portable toilet in the backstage VIP area at the Glastonbury music festival in the UK.
The man has been named as Christopher Shale, who is the chairman of the West Oxfordshire Conservative Association in Witney which is Prime Minister David Cameron’s constituency.
Cameron issued a statement this afternoon in which he said he was “devastated” by the news of Shale’s death, reports The Times (subscription required)
He was a great friend and has been a huge support over the last decade in West Oxfordshire. A big rock in my life has suddenly been rolled away.
Avon and Somerset Police have said that the body was discovered shortly after 9am today but the cause of the death is not yet known.
The festival organiser Michael Eavis has told reporters it was “a suicide situation” — but police insist it is too early to tell, according to The Guardian.
A police cordon was put up around the backstage shower and toilet area.
It is also reported that a distraught woman staying in the backstage area between the Pyramid and Other stages was being comforted by officers from the police force. It is believed she may have been Shale’s wife.
The couple are reported to have three children together.
Shale is the subject of an article in today’s Daily Mail in which the paper reports that the constituency chairman wrote a strategy document in which he says there is currently “no reason to join” the Conservative Party and “lots of reasons not to.”
In the heavily critical internal memorandum it is reported that Shale said the party was not currently an appealing proposition, writing: “Over the years we have come across as graceless, voracious, crass, always on the take.”
