Mark Oaten
Encyclopedia
Mark Oaten is a former British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 Liberal Democrat politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

. He served as the Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) for Winchester
Winchester (constituency)
Winchester is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundaries:...

 from 1997 to 2010, and was his party's Home Affairs spokesperson from 2003 to 2006. He stood for the leadership of the Liberal Democrats in the election in 2006
Liberal Democrats leadership election, 2006
In the 2006 Liberal Democrats leadership election, Sir Menzies Campbell was elected to succeed Charles Kennedy as Leader of the Liberal Democrats, the third-largest political party in the United Kingdom....

, but withdrew from the contest when he was hit by a series of scandals which also led to his resignation as Home Affairs spokesperson. He did not run for re-election to the House of Commons at the 2010 general election.

Early life

Oaten was educated at Queens' School
Queens' School
Queens' School, near Watford, Hertfordshire, is a state funded secondary school.It is currently designated a Specialist Sports and Science College.-History:The story of Queens' begins with two schools in Watford in the early 20th century....

, Bushey
Bushey
Bushey is a town in the Hertsmere borough of Hertfordshire in the East of England. Bushey Heath is situated to the south east of Bushey on the boundary with the London Borough of Harrow.-History:...

, and Hatfield Polytechnic
University of Hertfordshire
The University of Hertfordshire is a new university based largely in Hatfield, in the county of Hertfordshire, England, from which the university takes its name. It has more than 27,500 students, over 2500 staff, with a turnover of over £181m...

.

Before entering Parliament, Oaten had been a councillor
Councillor
A councillor or councilor is a member of a local government council, such as a city council.Often in the United States, the title is councilman or councilwoman.-United Kingdom:...

 and was employed as a lobbyist by various Westminster public affairs companies. He was leader of the Social Democratic Party
Social Democratic Party (UK)
The Social Democratic Party was a political party in the United Kingdom that was created on 26 March 1981 and existed until 1988. It was founded by four senior Labour Party 'moderates', dubbed the 'Gang of Four': Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams...

 group on Watford Borough Council
Watford Borough Council
Watford Borough Council is the local authority for the Watford non-metropolitan district of England, the United Kingdom. Watford is located in the south-west of Hertfordshire, in the East of England region....

. He stood for the Watford
Watford (UK Parliament constituency)
Watford is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election...

 seat at the 1992 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1992
The United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party. This election result was one of the biggest surprises in 20th Century politics, as polling leading up to the day of the election showed Labour under leader Neil...

 and polled 10,231 votes, coming third.

Member of Parliament

He won the Winchester seat in the 1997 election
United Kingdom general election, 1997
The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...

 with a majority of 2, but his election was later declared void by the Election Court
Election court
An Election Court is, in United Kingdom election law, a special court convened to hear a petition against the result of a local government or Parliamentary election. The court is created to hear the individual case, and ceases to exist when it has made its decision.- Statutory basis :Election...

. The defeated Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 former MP Gerry Malone
Gerry Malone
Peter Gerald "Gerry" Malone MA, LLB is a British Conservative politician who was an MP from 1983–87 and 1992–97.Born in Glasgow, Malone was educated at St Aloysius' College, Glasgow, and the University of Glasgow...

 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.

This decision caused the 1997 Winchester by-election
Winchester by-election, 1997
The 1997 Winchester by-election was a by-election to the UK House of Commons in the constituency of Winchester, Hampshire. After an unclear result in Winchester at the general election on 1 May 1997, a new election was allowed by the High Court...

 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
United Kingdom general election, 2001
The United Kingdom general election, 2001 was held on Thursday 7 June 2001 to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. It was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media, as the Labour Party was re-elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of 6 seats...

, with a majority of 9,634 (with a 54.6% share of the vote), and again in 2005
United Kingdom general election, 2005
The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....

, although his majority dropped to 7,473 (a 50.6% share of the vote).

Liberal Democrat leadership contest 2006

On 10 January 2006, Oaten declared that he would be a candidate in the leadership election
Liberal Democrats leadership election, 2006
In the 2006 Liberal Democrats leadership election, Sir Menzies Campbell was elected to succeed Charles Kennedy as Leader of the Liberal Democrats, the third-largest political party in the United Kingdom....

 to replace Charles Kennedy
Charles Kennedy
Charles Peter Kennedy is a British Liberal Democrat politician, who led the Liberal Democrats from 9 August 1999 until 7 January 2006 and is currently a Member of Parliament for the Ross, Skye and Lochaber constituency....

, 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.

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
Lembit Öpik
Lembit Öpik is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He was the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Montgomeryshire in Wales from 1997 until he lost his seat in the 2010 General Election...

 MP and Sarah Ludford, Baroness Ludford
Sarah Ludford, Baroness Ludford
Sarah Ann Ludford, Baroness Ludford is a Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament and a nonvoting member of the House of Lords ....

, a peer and 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."

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
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...

that he had hired a 23-year-old male prostitute between the summer of 2004 and February 2005. The newspaper also alleged that Oaten had engaged in 'three-in-a-bed
Threesome
A threesome is a group of three engaged in the same activity. In relation to a sexual activity a threesome refer to the activity involving three people of any gender or sexual orientation...

' sex sessions with two male prostitutes.

Oaten gave an explanation for his actions in an essay in The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times (UK)
The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...

in which he claimed a "mid-life crisis
Mid-life crisis
Midlife crisis is a term coined in 1965 by Elliott Jaques and used in Western societies to describe a period of dramatic self-doubt that is felt by some individuals in the "middle years" or middle age of life, as a result of sensing the passing of their own youth and the imminence of their old age...

" was 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."

Oaten announced that he would be standing down from Parliament at the 2010 general election. The members of the Winchester constituency party selected Martin Tod to replace Oaten as the Liberal Democrat candidate,
but Tod was defeated at the general election by the Conservative candidate Steve Brine
Steve Brine
Stephen Charles Brine is a British Conservative Party politician and the Member of Parliament for Winchester...

.

Retirement

In late 2009 the Oaten family were looking to sell their house in Bramdean
Bramdean
Bramdean is a village in Hampshire, England. The village church is 12th century and is dedicated to St Simon and St Jude. There is also a maintained by the Bishop Charity.-External links:...

 and move to Alresford
New Alresford
New Alresford or simply Alresford is a small town and civil parish in the City of Winchester district of Hampshire, England. It is situated some 12 km north-east of the city of Winchester and 20 km south-west of the town of Alton...

 in order to be closer to the facilities and transport network offered by the larger town.
After his retirement from frontline politics, Oaten released two books, one on the history of coalition governments, and the other a memoir entitled Screwing Up: How One MP Survived Politics, Scandal and Turning 40.

Political leaning

Oaten was a member of the Advisory Board of the Liberal Future
Liberal Future
Liberal Future was a British market liberal think tank dedicated to the pursuit of encouraging new thinking amongst liberals both within and without the Liberal Democrats party...

 think tank
Think tank
A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...

 until it was wound up in 2005, and one of the contributors to the The Orange Book: Reclaiming Liberalism in 2004. Within the party, Oaten has been called a moderniser in the sense that he was 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, condemned calls by then Conservative frontbencher David Davis for the reintroduction of capital punishment and has claimed to want to reunite all the strands of liberalism, and not elevate one above the others.

Tower Block of Commons

In February 2010 Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

 broadcast a four-part series called Tower Block of Commons in which four MPs lived with council tenants on different estates
Council house
A council house, otherwise known as a local authority house, is a form of public or social housing. The term is used primarily in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Council houses were built and operated by local councils to supply uncrowded, well-built homes on secure tenancies at...

 in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

Taking part along side Oaten were Tim Loughton
Tim Loughton
Timothy Paul Loughton is a British Conservative Party politician, and has been Member of Parliament for East Worthing and Shoreham since the 1997 general election...

, Austin Mitchell
Austin Mitchell
Austin Vernon Mitchell is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Great Grimsby since a 1977 by-election.-Education and early life:...

 and Nadine Dorries
Nadine Dorries
Nadine Vanessa Dorries is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Mid Bedfordshire since 2005. She has been involved in parliamentary attempts to change the laws on abortion....

, who replaced Iain Duncan Smith
Iain Duncan Smith
George Iain Duncan Smith is a British Conservative politician. He is currently the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and was previously leader of the Conservative Party from September 2001 to October 2003...

 who left the programme early after his wife was diagnosed with cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

.

International Fur Trade Federation

In 2011 Oaten accepted a position as executive of the International Fur Trade Federation. Oaten was criticised for accepting the position by animal welfare groups, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is an American animal rights organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president. A non-profit corporation with 300 employees and two million members and supporters, it claims to be the largest animal rights...

 (Peta) and Winchester Animal Concern. Whilst an MP, Oaten was critical of any plans to introduce legislation to outlaw fox hunting
Fox hunting
Fox hunting is an activity involving the tracking, chase, and sometimes killing of a fox, traditionally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds, and a group of followers led by a master of foxhounds, who follow the hounds on foot or on horseback.Fox hunting originated in its current...

, and supported a 'middle way' approach to the issue, that would allow hunting to remain legal. In 2004 Oaten voted against the ban on fox hunting.

Publications

  • Coalition: The Politics and Personalities of Coalition Government from 1850, Harriman House Publishing, 2007
  • Screwing Up: How One MP Survived Politics, Scandal and Turning 40, Biteback Publishing Ltd, 2009

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK