A past chief of staff to the former deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom, Nick Clegg, he was previously the director of policy and communications at the Liberal Democrats.

Oates began his career as an account manager at political and media relations firm Westminster Strategy.

In 1999, Oates took a position at the Westminster Foundation for Democracy where he was assigned to a role as a political and media adviser to the Inkatha Freedom Party in the South African Parliament, advising Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi and Reverend Musa Zondi.

Oates returned to the UK in 2001 as a policy and communications co-ordinator at the Youth Justice Board, advising chairman Lord Warner.

[8] He was created a life peer on 5 October 2015, taking the title Baron Oates, of Denby Grange in the County of West Yorkshire.