FRIENDS thought that former Suffolk MP Keith Stainton could have been burgled when his body was found at home late last year, an inquest has heard.The 79-year-old former Tory MP for Sudbury and Woodbridge was found dead at his home in Little Bealings in November.

By Paul Geater

FRIENDS thought that former Suffolk MP Keith Stainton could have been burgled when his body was found at home late last year, an inquest has heard.

The 79-year-old former Tory MP for Sudbury and Woodbridge was found dead at his home in Little Bealings in November.

It was thought that Mr Stainton, of Martlesham Road, Little Bealings, had been burgled when concerned friends turned up at his home as the kitchen appeared to be in disarray, the Ipswich inquest heard.

However further investigations by police revealed there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death.

An inquest held at Watkins, Stewart and Ross Solicitors in Ipswich heard that Mr Stainton had undergone operations in his throat for cancer before his death on November 3.

A post mortem examination, however, failed to indicate a cause of death and deputy Greater Suffolk Coroner Roger Stewart recorded an open verdict.

Mr Stainton had been MP for Sudbury and Woodbridge for 20 years before the seat disappeared under boundary changes in 1983.

He had tried to get the nomination for the new Suffolk Coastal and South Suffolk seats at that election, but was beaten by John Gummer and Tim Yeo and retired from public life.

Before entering the House of Commons at a by-election in 1963 – the last by-election in the county until the Ipswich poll in November – Mr Stainton had been a journalist with the Financial Times and was a manager and director of Ipswich-based food company Burton Son and Sanders for 15 years from 1956.