英：「ゲイ不倫」オーテン下院議員が今期限りでの引退を表明

Liberal Democrat Party leadership candidate Mark Oaten speaks at a conference at the London School of Economics in central London January 14, 2006. Oaten withdrew from the Liberal party's leadership contest earlier this year after a newspaper revealed he had paid a gay prostitute for sex announced on Tuesday he would step down at the next election. REUTERS/Toby Melville

MP in gay prostitute scandal to step down
Tue Jul 25, 2006 8:54 PM BST

LONDON (Reuters) - An MP who withdrew from the Liberal party's leadership contest earlier this year after a newspaper revealed he had paid a gay prostitute for sex announced on Tuesday he would step down at the next election.

Married father of two Mark Oaten, 42, MP for Winchester, briefly ran for the leadership of the Liberal Democrats in January, but shelved his bid after a newspaper disclosed his affair with a 23-year-old "rent boy".

He said in a statement on Tuesday he would not seek a fourth term at the next election, expected in 2009.

"I will continue to work for all my constituents both locally and at Westminster where I also hope to focus on human rights and third world development issues," he said.

A political high flyer from a young age, Oaten had become party spokesman on law and order and had campaigned for the party leadership as a family man, inviting cameras into his house, before the tabloid furore wrecked his career.

The scandal came at a difficult time for the Liberal Democrats -- long time leader Charles Kennedy had just resigned over alcoholism, and one of the other leadership candidates later confessed that he too had lied when denying being gay.

Oaten and his wife have since both gone on to give high profile magazine and newspaper interviews about their marriage, and Oaten has made numerous appearances on television talk shows. Some in the media expect him to seek a TV career.