WINCHESTER MP Mark Oaten is again being talked of as a future leader of the Liberal Democrats after being appointed to a key role in Charles Kennedy's office.

He will be at the heart of planning for the next general election, when the party will be defending a large number of marginal seats won in 1997, and the longer-term strategy of the new leader.

It was not a role Mr Oaten asked for. He wanted to join the foreign affairs team under Menzies Campbell and had, ironically, been campaign manager for Don Foster in the Lib Dem leadership contest.

But Charles Kennedy said he chose Mr Oaten as he exemplified "young talent" and was tremendously popular among Lib Dem MPs and members.

Mr Kennedy said: "Mark is obviously, along with others, a rising star in terms of the party in Parliament and in the party. He is very well regarded among his colleagues here.

"He has been through a sensational set of personal circumstances in terms of his election and the by-election."

Mr Kennedy pointed out that, by making Mark Oaten a junior spokesman on foreign affairs, he could learn from the party's chief spokesman Menzies Campbell, who is universally respected at Westminster.

Being branded a future party leader embarrasses Mr Oaten. For one thing, he must first hold his seat at the general election in what has traditionally been a strong Tory area, with a large and wealthy Conservative Association.

But Paddy Ashdown, too, singled him out for a fast-track role when, only months after the general election, he put Mr Oaten in charge of a committee conducting a radical review of the party's policies.

Some of its ideas, such as allowing schools to be run by neighbourhood trusts rather than controlled by local authorities, were voted down at last year's conference, but it gave him valuable experience in developing policy.

He backed the wrong man when he helped to run Don Foster's unsuccessful leadership bid but it did give Mr Oaten also a dry run in organising a campaign should the day ever come to do it himself.

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