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Lord Ashcroft suffered a life threatening illness and spent 18 days in intensive care, it has emerged.

The billionaire Tory peer behind the ‘pig-gate’ claims in ‘Call Me Dave’ is said to have been struck down with septic shock and liver and renal failure.

Ashcroft missed an event to promote his controversial David Cameron biography last night as details of his ‘life-threatening’ illness emerged.

Guests at the Westminster event were said to have been stunned into silence after being told he fell ill on September 22 and spent 18 days in intensive care.

The 69-year-old - who co-authored the book with journalist Isabel Oakeshott - has been recovering in hospital in America and is now said to be “out of danger”.

Oakeshott was among the guests at Millbank Tower along with Ukip leader Nigel Farage and Vicky Pryce, ex-wife of disgraced MP Chris Huhne.

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Call Me Dave contained embarrassing claims about the Prime Minister’s student days.

One, which was dismissed as nonsense by sources close to the premier, was the allegation that he participated in a stunt while at Oxford University involving a dead pig and “a private part of his anatomy”.

The biography also disclosed Lord Ashcroft’s fury at the Prime Minister for going back on a vow to reward his support for the Tories with a top job in government.

The Daily Mail’s serialisation also contained on-the-record claims that Mr Cameron smoked cannabis at university and that cocaine was in circulation at a dinner party at his home.

Lord Ashcroft had remained active on social media during his illness, and posted an opinion poll on Twitter last night while well-wishers urged him a speedy recovery.

He also told his followers about a TV report in Belize covering his health, which said he had suffered liver and renal failure resulting in heart damage.

He was also treated for internal bleeding and his condition was exasperated by his diabetes.

(Image: Ben Pruchnie)

The pollster was said to have originally fallen ill on September 22 after flying from Croatia to Turkey.

The dramatic news was broken in a recording of a Channel 5 Belize TV presenter when Lord Ashcroft failed to turn up at his own launch party.

Guests sipping wines from his vineyards on the 29th floor of London’s Millbank Tower initially thought it was a joke.

But the presenter, in the South American country he virtually runs, said: “Lord Ashcroft has been suffering from a life-threatening illness that left him in intensive care for 18 days.

“He was struck down by sceptic shock that resulted in liver and renal failure, and consequential heart damage.”

The diabetic fell ill on September 22, the day after serialisation started of Call Me Dave.

He’d flown to Croatia after the military historian had visited Gallipoli in Turkey to mark the centenary of the First World War disaster.

(Image: Rex)

He was treated by a local doctor before flying for the Turks and Caicos Islands the next day.

He was admitted to hospital then flown to Ohio’s famous Cleveland Clinic in the USA where he was diagnosed with sceptic shock.

“Lord Ashcroft suffered liver failure, kidney failure and internal bleeding from a leaking intestinal lesion near his stomach that was cauterized and clipped. He suffers accrue fluctuations in blood pressure that is now being controlled by medication.”

According to the recording: “As Lord Ashcroft spent 18 days in intensive care there were times when his close family feared for his life.”

He was said to be “out of danger and is recuperating well at a safe and secure location” and intends to visit Belize shortly.

(Image: PA)

In a speech read in his absence, Lord Ashcroft sent his apologies for not attending.

He said: “As you will have just seen, I have been a little pre-occupied for the past four weeks. I haven’t, of course, set foot in the UK since my illness but I am reliably informed that my book has caused a little bit of a stir.”

Lord Ashcroft also thanked his colleagues for stepping in while he recovered.

He said: “My poor health over the past month has meant that my co-author, Isabel Oakeshott, and my publisher, Iain Dale, have – with support from my private office – been left to defend the book on their own.

"Although they have done a sterling job without me, I am well aware that I should have been standing shoulder-to-shoulder at their side but – as my health deteriorated – that was, of course, impossible.

"I have fought many political and business battles over the past half century but this is the first one – and, I trust, the last – in which I haven’t led from the front.”