Mark Oaten - Misplaced Pages

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Mark Oaten, when he had more hair. In a Sunday Times interview in May 2006, the disgraced MP suggested his sudden baldness was a cause of the compulsive disorders which led to his downfall.

Mark Oaten (born 8 March 1964, Watford) is a Liberal Democrat politician in the United Kingdom, and Member of Parliament for the Winchester constituency. Oaten served as the Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary (the party's main Home Affairs spokesman), before resigning that position on 21 January, 2006 after a sex scandal involving male prostitutes was uncovered by the News of the World tabloid newspaper.

Before Parliament

Oaten was educated at Watford Comprehensive School and Hatfield Polytechnic. 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 District Council. He stood for the Watford seat at the 1992 election and polled 10,231 votes, coming third.

Election to 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.

This decision caused the 1997 Winchester by-election at which Malone fought once again 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).