Mark Oaten

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Mark Oaten MP
Liberal Democrats Home Affairs
In office 12 June 2003 – 21 January 2006
Leader	Charles Kennedy
Preceded by	Simon Hughes
Succeeded by	Nick Clegg
Member of Parliament for Winchester
Incumbent
Assumed office  1 May 1997
Preceded by	Gerry Malone
Majority	7,473 (12.1%)
Born	8 March 1964 (1964-03-08) (age 45) Watford, Hertfordshire, England
Political party	Liberal Democrats
Alma mater	University of Hertfordshire
Website	http://www.markoaten.com/

Mark Oaten (born 8 March 1964, Watford, Hertfordshire) is a Liberal Democrat politician in the United Kingdom, and Member of Parliament for the Winchester constituency. Oaten served as the Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson, before resigning that position on 21 January 2006 after a sex scandal involving male prostitutes was broken by the News of the World tabloid newspaper. Oaten has confirmed he will not be standing for re-election at the next general election.^[1]

Contents 1 Early life 2 Member of Parliament 2.1 Liberal Democrat leadership contest 2006 2.2 Scandal and resignation 2.3 Retirement 3 Political learning 4 Notes and references 5 Publications 6 External links

[edit] Early life

Oaten was educated at Queens' School, Bushey and Hatfield Polytechnic.^[2][3] Before entering Parliament, Oaten had been a councillor and was employed as a lobbyist by various Westminster public affairs companies. He was leader of the Social Democratic Party group on Watford Council. He stood for the Watford seat at the 1992 election and polled 10,231 votes, coming third.^[4]

[edit] Member of Parliament

He won the Winchester seat in the 1997 election with a majority of 2, but his election was later declared void by the Election Court. The defeated Conservative former MP Gerry Malone successfully challenged the election on the basis of an established precedent which voided the result where it had been affected by a decision not to count ballot papers which had not been properly stamped.^[4]

This decision caused the 1997 Winchester by-election at which Malone fought once again to try to capture the seat. However, many felt that Malone had behaved as a 'poor loser' and Oaten won with a majority of 21,556, gaining 68% of the vote. He held the seat in the 2001 election, with a majority of 9,634 (with a 54.6% share of the vote), and again in 2005, although his majority dropped to 7,473 (a 50.6% share of the vote).

[edit] Liberal Democrat leadership contest 2006

On 10 January 2006, Oaten declared that he would be a candidate in the leadership election to replace Charles Kennedy, standing on an agenda of making liberalism relevant to the twenty first century. He was widely rumoured to be Kennedy's favoured successor, but his campaign failed to gain momentum. On 18 January he became embroiled in a row about the leaking of an email.^[5]

On 19 January, Oaten withdrew from the contest, having failed to attract enough support from within the parliamentary party; his sole backers were Lembit Öpik MP and Sarah Ludford, Baroness Ludford, peer & MEP.

He concluded his withdrawal statement with the words "Next week I'll be giving some thought to where I go politically and giving my thoughts on the future of the Party."

[edit] Scandal and resignation

On 21 January 2006, Oaten resigned from the Liberal Democrat front bench when it was revealed by the News of the World that he had had a relationship with a 23-year-old male prostitute between summer 2004 and February 2005. The newspaper alleges that Oaten had had 'three-in-a-bed' sex with two male prostitutes.^[6] Rumours of coprophilia were reported in Private Eye^[7] and an opinion piece in the The Daily Telegraph.^[8]

Shortly after the scandal broke, Oaten's wife of 13 years, Belinda, fled to their neighbours' house and then left the country taking their two daughters on a skiing holiday to Austria. While it was initially alleged by The Daily Mirror newspaper that she planned to divorce him^[9] later reports on the BBC News website (as of 27 April 2006) stated that their relationship was improving due to weekly counselling sessions. A poll for the Southern Daily Echo revealed 58% of 1,000 respondents believed he should resign his seat.^[10] On 29 January the News of the World revealed that one of the male prostitutes involved was 25-year-old Tomasz (pronounced like English "Tomash"), a Polish former ballet dancer. The newspaper quotes Tomasz as saying "he was very specific about something special he wanted us to do to him. It's a gross act of humiliation which only a few punters ask for. It's quite revolting really."

Oaten's wife, Belinda, was interviewed in Hello magazine in April 2006, while Oaten himself gave an explanation for his actions in an essay in The Sunday Times^[11] in which he claimed a "mid-life crisis" and the stress of going bald were partly responsible for his actions. This was partially contradicted by a 2009 Press Gazette interview Oaten gave, in which he said "Journalists...had my story for three years I think, but hung on to it and never did anything with it. They could have made that public interest argument at any point in the three years. I had always been a Member of Parliament, but they waited until it could sell most newspapers, at the point at which I became well-known and at my most famous." implying that the story was not a recent development, and at least partially pre-dated his hair loss.^[12]

Oaten has been reported as saying he will stand down from Parliament before the next General Election^[13].

[edit] Retirement

Mark Oaten has professed a desire to either write a book or work in the field of international development following his departure from the House of Commons.

[edit] Political learning

Oaten was a member of the Advisory Board of the Liberal Future think tank until it was wound up in 2005 and one of the contributors to the Orange Book (2004). Within the party Oaten has been called a moderniser, in the sense that he is keen to emphasise economic liberalism and to prevent the Liberal Democrats being sidelined as a 'party of the left'. However as the party's principal home affairs spokesman, he also championed the rights of asylum seekers and civil liberties, and has claimed to want to reunite all the strands of liberalism, and not elevate one above the others. Thus Oaten's supporters would describe him as being on the libertarian wing of the Liberal Democrats, rather than the 'right' wing.^{[citation needed]}

He also popularised the term 'tough liberalism', which was widely reported as a shift towards more punitive law and order measures and stricter immigration policy.^{[citation needed]} However, this seems to be a mischaracterisation of Oaten's initial meaning, which was to indicate a non-interventionist approach emphasising personal responsibility, which could be characterised as 'cruel to be kind', and to emphasise willingness to stand up to reactionary public opinion on social policy issues.

He has been a Vice-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Learning & Skills in the Criminal Justice System since September 2005.

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] Publications

• Coalition: The Politics and Personalities of Coaltion Government from 1850, Harriman House Publishing, 2007

[edit] External links

• Mark Oaten MP official site
• Mark Oaten MP profile at the site of Liberal Democrats
• Winchester Liberal Democrats
• ePolitix.com - Mark Oaten MP
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Mark Oaten MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Mark Oaten MP
• The Public Whip - Mark Oaten voting record
• BBC News profile - Mark Oaten profile 21 January 2006
• Resignation from front bench BBC 21 January 2006
• Lib Dem MP resigns over "gay" relationship 22 January 2006

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Gerry Malone	Member of Parliament for Winchester 1997 – present	Incumbent
Party political offices
Preceded by ?	Chair of the Liberal Democrats 2001–2003	Succeeded by Matthew Taylor