Dan Jarvis
MBE MP
Official parliamentary portrait, June 2017
Mayor of the Sheffield City Region
Assumed office
4 May 2018
Preceded by Office created
Member of Parliament
for Barnsley Central
Assumed office
3 March 2011
Preceded by Eric Illsley
Majority 15,546 (63.9%)
Personal details
Born Daniel Owen Woolgar Jarvis
(1972-11-30) 30 November 1972 (age 51)
Website www.danjarvis.org


Daniel Owen Woolgar Jarvis, MBE (born 30 November 1972) is Member of Parliament (MP) for Barnsley Central. He was elected as Mayor of Sheffield City Region in 2018.

Political career: 2011-present

Although his military service had precluded political activity, Jarvis had joined the Labour Party at the age of 18 while at university. Shortly before the 2010 general election, Jarvis was shortlisted for the Labour Party selection in the South Wales seat of Islwyn. He picked up support from one local would-be candidate who had not made the shortlist, but he was not selected.

Jarvis was selected as the Labour candidate for Barnsley Central on 27 January 2011, following the resignation of Eric Illsley . An eliminating ballot was held and at the penultimate stage Jarvis was tied with local councillor Linda Burgess, each several votes behind Richard Burgon. London Regional Director, Ken Clark, put two pieces of paper into the hat of Phil Dilks, the Press Officer: one that read "Loser" and one "Winner". Burgess, in going first, picked out the paper reading "Loser", and Jarvis won. In the final stage he picked up most of Burgess' votes, and won selection. He became the first Labour candidate for the Barnsley Central seat since 1938 who was not born in Yorkshire.

In October 2011, Jarvis was appointed Shadow Arts and Culture Minister, part of the Shadow Culture, Media and Sport team led by Harriet Harman; he moved to become Shadow Youth Justice and Victims Minister in Labour leader Edward Miliband's October 2013 shadow cabinet reshuffle.

Following the Labour Party's defeat in the 2015 general election, and the resignation of Ed Miliband, media speculation about candidates for the party's leadership election included Dan Jarvis alongside several other MPs. However, he quickly announced that he was not going to run, saying that he needed to put his young family first; he had recently remarried after losing his first wife to cancer.

In the 2015 Labour leadership election Jarvis endorsed and supported Andy Burnham.