Mark Oaten is the Liberal Democrat MP for Winchester.
Born 8 March 1964, father of two, Mark Oaten has been the Winchester MP since 1997, a previously solid Conservative seat that he initially won by just two votes. An electoral court ordered a re-run of the election and six months later, Oaten won the seat with a majority of 21,556.
Tipped for the top, Mark Oaten launched a leadership campaign three days after Charles Kennedy’s resignation but abandoned his bid due to a lack of support from other MPs. Following newspaper allegations in January 2006 that claimed he made visits to a male prostitute, he resigned from his position as Home Affairs spokesman and announced that he would stand down from his seat at the next general election.
A former public relations man and political lobbyist, Oaten is seen as being on the right of the Liberal Democrats, advocating market based reform of public services. He started in Parliament as spokesperson on disabled people before becoming Charles Kennedy’s Parliamentary Private Secretary and foreign affairs spokesperson. In 2003, Oaten become the Shadow Home Secretary choosing to speak of the rights of victims of crime.
These days, Mark Oaten makes rare contributions in the Commons, and spends time abroad as a member of the Western European Union and the Council of Europe.
