Mr Shale, 56, was discovered dead in a portable lavatory in the festival’s VIP backstage area on Sunday morning after being missing for almost 24 hours. 
 
 Initially it was reported that the chairman of the West Oxfordshire Conservative Association had killed himself after the festival organiser, Michael Eavis, told journalists that it was a “suicide situation”. 
 
 But friends and police sources rejected the suggestion, saying that he had a “massive heart attack”. Somerset Police have confirmed that the death is not being treated as suspicious. 
 
 Mr Cameron said he was “devastated” by the death of Mr Shale, who was the Conservative Party chairman in the Prime Minister’s constituency. 
 
 Mr Cameron described him as “a rock” and added: “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. Christopher was one of the most truly generous people I’ve ever met – he was always giving to others, his time, his help, his enthusiasm and above all his love of life.” 
 
 Mr Shale had been visiting the festival – which friends said he attended every year – with his wife Nikki, 55, their 20-year-old son Alby and two children from Mrs Shale’s previous marriage: Natalia, 30, and Edoardo, 27. 
 
 Mr Shale had received phone calls from Downing Street at midday on Saturday warning him that a highly critical memo he had written about the Conservative Party was due to be published in a Sunday newspaper. 
 
 In the memo, he had stated that there were “no reasons” to join the Conservative Party. 
 
 “Over the years we have come across as graceless, voracious, crass, always on the take,” he wrote. People do not want to join the party because they “think we’ll beg and steal from them. And they’re right,” the memo said. 
 
 Downing St yesterday disclosed that a Number 10 aide had left a message for Mr Shale on his mobile phone, warning him not to talk to journalists. It was not clear whether he had picked up that message. 
 
 Mr Cameron’s election agent, Barry Norton, also called and spoke to him, repeating Downing Street’s warning. 
 
 Mr Shale was seen visiting a portable lavatory in the VIP area of the festival shortly before 1pm, 45 minutes after the message was left by Downing Street. Friends said they believed he suffered a cardiac arrest. He was found dead in the lavatory by festival staff at 9am yesterday. News of his death spread round the festival site and tributes were paid from his friends in government. 
 
 Mr Cameron added: “Our love and prayers are with Nikki and the family. They’ve lost an amazing dad, west Oxfordshire has lost a big and wonderful man and, like so many others, Sam and I have lost a close and valued friend.” 
 
 Andrew Mitchell, the international development secretary, knew Mr Shale from trips they had been on together in Rwanda as part of a project to help young Africans prepare for work. 
 
 He said: “He was a wonderful man whose zest for life and love of his family and friends coloured everything he did. For his close friends his company was like a freshly-opened bottle of champagne. I can hardly bear to accept that he will not be with us.” 
 
 Conservative party sources in Oxfordshire said that the fact Mr Shale’s memo had been leaked was unlikely to have caused him any undue concern. 
 
 Richard Langridge, deputy chairman of West Oxfordshire Conservative Association, said that while Mr Shale was disappointed the memo had been leaked he was happy with its content. 
 
 Mr Langridge added: “It is certainly not a question of him ruffling feathers or people being upset at what he said, and he wasn’t spoken to by anyone higher up in the party about its contents. The report was for members, it was a local initiative done with the full agreement of the national party.” 
 
 Mr Eavis later said that he had extended his “deepest sympathies” to Mr Shale’s family. 
 
 Inspector Chris Morgan, of Avon and Somerset Police, said: “An investigation is continuing to establish the circumstances surrounding his death but police are not looking for anyone else. Our thoughts are with the family at this difficult time. We are continuing with our enquiries to find out how Christopher died and are providing support to the family.” ||||| The body of Christopher Shale, the chairman of the West Oxfordshire Conservative Association, was discovered in a lavatory in the VIP section of Glastonbury at around 8.45am yesterday. It is believed he had suffered a heart attack. 
 
 A police spokesperson said last night that after initial inquiries and a post-mortem examination, they were not treating the death as suspicious, adding: "Further tests will be conducted to establish the exact cause of death." 
 
 The area in which the discovery was made was where musicians and other leading festival figures were staying in Winnebago-style camper vans. Mr Shale's family had been searching for him overnight after he had last been seen around Saturday lunchtime. 
 
 Last night Conservative sources said Mr Shale had received a call from a press officer on Saturday morning warning him that The Mail on Sunday was planning to publish an excoriating memo he had written about the internal state of the local Conservative Party. 
 
 The Shale family were in a separate camping area off the main site. A distraught woman was seen being comforted by officers in the backstage area between the Pyramid and Other stages yesterday morning, after it had been cordoned off by the police. 
 
 Rupert Soames, a friend attending Glastonbury with Mr Shale, said the family were "absolutely devastated and shell-shocked but are being very brave." He added: "He was not only a very good businessman, he was a terrific father and he contributed a lot to public life." 
 
 As well as being a prominent Conservative in the part of Oxfordshire that includes Mr Cameron's Witney constituency, Mr Shale was the long-serving chief executive of Oxford Resources Ltd, a firm that advised companies on ways to reduce their costs. A moderniser on the Tory right, he was a member of the business council of the European No Campaign, and a director of the Centre for Policy Studies. 
 
 Mr Cameron's office released a warm tribute yesterday which suggested that the Prime Minister may privately agree with a lot of what Mr Shale had written. He said: "Sam and I were devastated to hear the news about Christopher. 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. Christopher was one of the most truly generous people I've ever met. He was always giving to others – his time, his help, his enthusiasm and above all his love of life. 
 
 "Our love and prayers are with Nikki [Mr Shale's wife] and the family. They've lost an amazing dad, west Oxfordshire has lost a big and wonderful man and, like so many others, Sam and I have lost a close and valued friend." 
 
 The festival's founder, Michael Eavis, later expressed his "deepest sympathy" for Mr Shale's family. He added: "We work very closely with the police, medical and other emergency services to ensure that the festival is as safe as possible for all 177,000 people on the site." 
 
 The memo by Shale that ended up in 'The Mail on Sunday' 
 
 Christopher Shale had bemoaned the state of the Conservative Party in a leaked memo published by 'The Mail on Sunday' yesterday, suggesting that there was "no reason to join" the Tories. The newspaper article carried details of a leaked strategy document written by Mr Shale warning that the continual fall in Conservative membership could be attributed to people's suspicions that if they get involved, "we'll beg and steal from them". He added: "And they're right." 
 
 The newspaper also quoted the document as saying: "Over the years, we have come across as graceless, voracious, crass, always on the take. When we are together, we are not always a group of people to whom many of our potential members are going to be magnetically drawn." 
 
 Mr Shale then offered a solution. He said: "We must look different – when we communicate, when we're together. We must sound different – in what we say, how we say it, the language we use, our tone of voice."
– A close pal of British Prime Minister David Cameron has been found dead in a VIP portable toilet at the Glastonbury Music Festival in England. The corpse of Christopher Shale was discovered the same day the Sunday Mail printed an embarrassing memo by him saying that people saw little reason to join the Conservatives. Shale, 56, was the Conservative party chairman in Cameron's district. In his memo, he attributed the fall in party membership to people's suspicions that if they get involved, "we'll beg and steal from them, and they're right." It's not yet clear if Shale died of a heart attack or committed suicide, according to various press reports. Cameron called Shale a "close and valued friend." A "big rock in my life has suddenly been rolled away," he said. Shale's family is "absolutely devastated and shell-shocked," said a spokesman.