Page 376 - They Also Served

186
Dan Jarvis 1997.
Daniel Owen Woolgar Jarvis was born
in Nottingham on 30th November
1972. Educated at Rushcliffe Academy,
he later studied international politics
and strategic studies at the University
of Wales, Aberystwyth. He was
commissioned from Sandhurst into the
Parachute Regiment in August 1997,
joining the 1st Battalion. In 1999, he was a platoon commander during the invasion of Kosovo and, the following year, deployed to Sierra Leone. During a 14-year career, he also served in Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan twice, latterly as a company commander.
As a child of lifelong Labour supporters, Jarvis was a committed socialist and joined the party at 18. However, like many others, he kept out of politics during his service until he was selected as the Labour candidate for the 2011 Barnsley by-election after the conviction for fraud of the incumbent. Jarvis duly resigned his commission on 3rd March 2011, being awarded an MBE in the Birthday Honours List later that year. Despite some misgivings about his roots, in a town where memories of Nottingham miners refusing to join the 1984–85 strike were still vivid, he was elected with a majority of 3,500.
Singled out early for his leadership potential, Jarvis was made shadow arts minister and later shadow youth, justice, and victims minister under Labour leader Ed Miliband. Indeed, when Miliband resigned after the 2015 election defeat, Jarvis was touted as a leadership candidate. However, his wife had died two years earlier and he refused to stand, wanting to devote more time to his young family. Although he personally campaigned for the UK to stay in the EU, his constituents were heavily in favour of Brexit. Jarvis then showed his principles by voting for Article 50, the clause to leave the Union, citing that the wishes of most voters, and his constituents, in particular, must be respected.
Elected mayor of the Sheffield City Region in 2018, he stood down in 2022 and became shadow minister for security in the Labour shadow cabinet reshuffle of September 2023. Insiders still tout him as a future Labour leader.
370