Mark Oaten (born 8 March 1964) is a British politician who was a senior member of the
Liberal Democrats. He served as the
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
(MP) for
Winchester from 1997 to 2010.
Born in
Watford
Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne.
Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and ...
,
Hertfordshire, Oaten became a councillor in local government, joining the centre-left
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
Fo ...
, which merged with the
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
This is a li ...
to form the
Liberal Democrats in 1988. He became the party's
Home Affairs spokesman in 2003. He stood for the position of
Leader of the Liberal Democrats in 2006, but withdrew from the contest he was later hit by a series of scandals which also led to his resignation as Home Affairs spokesman. He did not seek re-election to the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
at the
2010 general election.
Following his retirement from active politics, Oaten published two books, before becoming executive of the International Fur Trade Federation in 2011.
Early life
Oaten was educated at
Queens' School
Queens' School, near Watford, Hertfordshire, is a partially selective secondary school and sixth form with academy status. It currently is a specialist science and sports college.
History
The story of Queens' begins with two schools in Watf ...
,
Bushey
Bushey is a town in the Hertsmere borough of Hertfordshire in the East of England. It has a population of over 25,000 inhabitants. Bushey Heath is a large neighbourhood south east of Bushey on the boundary with the London Borough of Harrow ...
and the
University of Hertfordshire
The University of Hertfordshire (UH) is a public university in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. The university is based largely in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Its antecedent institution, Hatfield Technical College, was founded in 1948 and was ident ...
.
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
SDP group on
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. The council is based in the Town Hall o ...
. He stood for the
Watford
Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne.
Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and ...
seat at the
1992 general election and polled 10,231 votes, finishing in third place.
[Ask Aristotle: Mark Oaten]
" ''The Guardian''.
Member of Parliament
Oaten won the Winchester seat in the
1997 election with a majority of two, but his election was later declared void by the
Election Court
In United Kingdom election law, election court is 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 ha ...
. The defeated
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
former MP
Gerry Malone
Peter Gerald "Gerry" Malone (born 21 July 1950) is a British Conservative Party politician who served as a member of Parliament (MP) from 1983 to 1987 and again from 1992 to 1997.
Early life
Born in Glasgow, Malone was educated at St Aloysius ...
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 at which Malone stood again. 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).
]
Liberal Democrat leadership contest 2006
On 10 January 2006, Oaten declared that he would be a candidate in the leadership election
A leadership election is a political contest held in various countries by which the members of a political party determine who will be the leader of their party.
Generally, any political party can determine its own rules governing how and when a l ...
to replace Charles Kennedy
Charles Peter Kennedy (25 November 1959 – 1 June 2015) was a British Liberal Democrat politician who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 1999 to 2006, and was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ross, Skye and Lochaber from 1983 ...
, 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 support from within the parliamentary party; his sole supporters were Lembit Öpik
Lembit Öpik (, ; born 2 March 1965) is a former British politician. A former member of the Liberal Democrats, he served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Montgomeryshire in Wales from 1997 until he lost his seat at the ...
MP and Sarah Ludford, Baroness Ludford
Sarah Ann Ludford, Baroness Ludford (born 14 March 1951) is a British-Irish Liberal Democrat politician and member of the House of Lords. She served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for London from 1999 until 2014.
Early life and ed ...
, 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'' 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' sex sessions with two male prostitutes. Further allegations surfaced in the media over the following days, including an accusation that he had asked one of the prostitutes to engage in an act of coprophilia
Coprophilia (from Greek κόπρος, ''kópros'' 'excrement' and φιλία, ''philía'' 'liking, fondness'), also called scatophilia or scat (Greek: σκατά, ''skatá'' 'feces'), is the paraphilia involving sexual arousal and pleasure from ...
.
Oaten gave an explanation for his actions in an essay in ''The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, w ...
'' in which he claimed a "mid-life crisis
A midlife crisis is a transition of identity and self-confidence that can occur in middle-aged individuals, typically 40 to 60 years old. The phenomenon is described as a psychological crisis brought about by events that highlight a person's grow ...
" 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 his 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.
Retirement
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''. In 2018, he resigned from the Liberal Democrats after being a member for thirty years but announced that he had rejoined them in September 2019 to "help defeat the new extremes growing in politics".
Political leaning
Oaten was a member of the Advisory Board of the Liberal Future think tank
A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...
until it was wound up in 2005, and one of the contributors to '' The Orange Book: Reclaiming Liberalism'' in 2004—although he attracted anger from the book's co-authors at its launch event at the Lib Dem Conference in spring 2004 when he refused to answer questions about his own chapter, stating that it had actually been written by his research assistant, and that he had not even read it. Within the party, Oaten had 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'. As the party's principal home affairs spokesman, he 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 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
broadcast a four-part series called ''Tower Block of Commons
''Tower Block of Commons'' is a Television in the United Kingdom, British four-episode reality documentary show produced by Love Productions and broadcast on Channel 4 in 2010 where four Member of Parliament, Members of Parliament (MPs) have to ...
'' in which four MPs lived with on different council estates in England. Taking part alongside Oaten were Tim Loughton
Timothy Paul Loughton, (born 30 May 1962) is a British politician and former banker who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for East Worthing and Shoreham since the 1997 general election. A member of the Conservative Party, he was Parl ...
, Austin Mitchell
Austin Vernon Mitchell (19 September 1934 – 18 August 2021) was a British academic, journalist and Labour Party politician who was the member of Parliament (MP) for Great Grimsby from a 1977 by-election to 2015. He was also the chair of t ...
and Nadine Dorries
Nadine Vanessa Dorries (''née'' Bargery, 21 May 1957) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from 2021 to 2022 under Prime Minister Boris Johnson. A member of the Conservative Party, she ...
.
International Fur Trade Federation
In 2011 Oaten accepted a position as executive of the International Fur Trade Federation. Whilst an MP, Oaten was critical of any plans to introduce legislation to outlaw fox hunting, 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.
Personal life
In an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live with Emma Barnett
Emma Barnett (born 5 February 1985) is a British broadcaster and journalist. She has been the main presenter of ''Woman's Hour'' on BBC Radio 4 since January 2021.
Barnett worked for BBC Radio 5 Live for six years, beginning in 2014, after th ...
in 2019, Oaten came out as gay and revealed he was in a relationship. He was previously married to his wife, Belinda, with whom he had two daughters.
Notes and references
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
*
Mark Oaten MP
profile at the site of Liberal Democrats
TheyWorkForYou.com - Mark Oaten MP
The Public Whip - Mark Oaten
voting record
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oaten, Mark
1964 births
20th-century LGBT people
21st-century LGBT people
21st-century memoirists
Alumni of the University of Hertfordshire
Councillors in Hertfordshire
Gay politicians
LGBT members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom
LGBT memoirists
LGBT politicians from England
Liberal Democrats (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Liberal Democrats (UK) councillors
Living people
People educated at Queens' School, Hertfordshire
People from Watford
Politics of Winchester
Social Democratic Party (UK) politicians
UK MPs 1997–2001
UK MPs 2001–2005
UK MPs 2005–2010