A Labour MP who served in the Special Forces has seen his odds slashed on becoming the party 's next leader after facing down a mugger who threatened to kill him . Ex Para Dan Jarvis , who completed tours of Iraq and Afghanistan before entering Parliament in 2011 , is now the third favourite to replace Ed Miliband following a surge of bets on the MP of Barnsley Central . It comes after he revealed how he was threatened by a violent thug who threatened to smash a glass bottle over his head . But Mr Jarvis replied 'that 's not going to happen ' before walking off . Scroll down for video . Ex Para Dan Jarvis , who completed tours of Iraq and Afghanistan before entering Parliament in 2011 , is now the third favourite to replace Ed Miliband following a surge of bets on the MP of Barnsley Central . Mr Jarvis said he feared that he would have to fight the mugger . He said : 'This guy came up to me with a bottle and tried to kill me . I walked into the Tube and the man , who was clearly very drunk and aggressive , came over and said if I did n't give him my wallet he would break the bottle over my head . ' I said 'that 's not going to happen ' and we stood and faced each other off for what seemed like quite a long time . ' I had visions of us rolling around on the platform , but thankfully it did n't come to that . ' Speaking to the Sun , he added : ' I walked away thinking 'he 's going to hit me from behind ' but he did n't and I went and reported it to the police . ' Mr Jarvis won his seat in Barnsley Central in 2011 after becoming the first person since the Second World War to resign a military commission to contest a by-election . Less than a year earlier , in July 2010 , his wife Caroline died from cancer at the age of 43 – leaving him to bring up his two children . The Labour MP has since remarried and now has a third child . Dan Jarvis ( centre ) , celebrating his 2011 by-election victory with MPs Andy Burnham ( left ) and John Healey ( second right ) The father of three became the first serving MP to be honoured for his military service after being awarded an MBE in 2011 . He received the honour for his discovery of a new method of detecting roadside bombs . In 2007 , he led a company of 150 men on a six-month mission into Helmand Province in Afghanistan in 2007 . Full details of Mr Jarvis 's task remain classified , but it involved recruiting and training local volunteers to serve in the Afghan Territorial Force , an elite unit charged with taking on the Taliban . Mr Jarvis was only 34 at the time , but highly experienced having already served in Kosovo , Northern Ireland and Sierra Leone and completed multiple tours in Afghanistan and Iraq .
Ex Para Dan Jarvis has seen odds slashed on becoming party 's next leader . Barnsley MP third favourite to replace Ed Miliband following a surge of bets . He has revealed how he was threatened by a violent thug trying to mug him . The attacker threatened to glass him if he did n't hand over his wallet . But Mr Jarvis replied 'that 's not going to happen ' before walking off .