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 didn'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 didn't come to that.' Speaking to the Sun, he added: 'I walked away thinking 'he's going to hit me from behind' but he didn'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 didn't hand over his wallet . But Mr Jarvis replied 'that's not going to happen' before walking off .