LONDON, Aug 9: A post-mortem examination on Robin Cook has revealed the former British foreign secretary died of hypertensive heart disease, Scotland’s Crown Office said on Tuesday. Mr Cook, who quit the government over the Iraq invasion, died on Saturday after collapsing on a Scottish Mountainside. He was 59.

“The Procurator Fiscal ... can confirm that a post-mortem examination following the death of Robin Cook MP has established the cause of death as hypertensive heart disease,” the Crown Office in Edinburgh said in a statement.

A spokesman said the next of kin had been informed.

Mr Cook served as foreign secretary from 1997 to 2001 and then became leader of the House of Commons — the government’s top represent Scot, collapsed on Saturday while walking with his wife Gaynor on Ben Stack mountain in northwest Scotland. A rescue helicopter took him to hospital in the town of Inverness, where he was pronounced dead.

Colleagues and the media have praised Cook as one of the outstanding political debaters of his time. —Reuters