Former Environment Secretary reveals stress of frontline political life made her hallucinate

Therese Coffey - blames stress for rare brain abscess 

FORMER Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey has described how the pressures of being in Government made her ill.

Ms Coffey who unexpectedly resigned from her frontbench duties in advance of last month's Cabinet reshuffle, was candid in an interview with the Sunday Times. 

She is reported to have told the newspaper she "came close to dying" after developing a rare brain abscess following a period of extreme stress while she was "burning the candle at both ends".

After she  began to hallucinate and slur her words in May 2018, when she was a junior Environment minister, she spent a month in hospital.

The  revelations of the Suffolk MP, who is the RSPB's parliamentary champion for the bittern,  will come as a surprise to many who thought her a model of self-possession and resilience.

Now returned to the Commons back benches, she is quoted as saying that she tries to "live in the moment".