‘Defence of our nation is the first duty of government’: New Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis steps into the job

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Mr Jarvis was named as the new Defence Secretary after John Healey resigned over a row about military funding.

Reflecting on his new appointment, Mr Jarvis wrote on X: "The defence of our nation is the first duty of government.

"Our Armed Forces carry out that duty every day with professionalism, courage, and extraordinary skill.

"It is a huge honour and a privilege to serve alongside them again."

Read more: Dan Jarvis appointed new defence secretary after bombshell Healey resignation

Read more: 'I spent decades serving in Special Forces - but quit government after 24 months': Al Carns reveals exactly why he had to resign

Mr Jarvis is a former Parachute Regiment officer, who was once nicknamed the “steely-eyed messenger of death”, and has a reputation for calm in the midst of a storm.

The nickname came not from his days working with Britain’s Special Forces, but four years into his political career after a man tried to mug him on the Tube.

As Mr Jarvis himself told the story in 2015, the man – “drunk and aggressive” – threatened to break a bottle over his head if he did not hand over his wallet.

The response “that’s not going to happen” and a brief standoff saw the would-be mugger back off, and friendly MPs began referring to the former major with a new, sinister nickname.

Born in Nottingham in 1972, Mr Jarvis attended Sandhurst straight from his international politics degree at Aberystwyth University, commissioning into the Parachute Regiment in 1997.

Over the next 14 years, he served in every major theatre where British forces were deployed, including the Balkans, West Africa and the Middle East.

As a platoon commander in Kosovo in 1999, he was at Pristina Airport when General Sir Mike Jackson famously refused to confront Russian forces, telling his American superior: “Sir, I’m not going to start World War Three for you.”

Mr Jarvis, who went on to become General Jackson’s personal staff officer, later described the incident as “a very surreal moment in my life”.

In 2000 he was sent to Sierra Leone to help the Army learn lessons from the capture of a group of British soldiers who were later rescued in a joint SAS-Parachute Regiment operation unofficially nicknamed “Operation Certain Death”.

He was deployed to Iraq in 2003 and Afghanistan in 2005 and 2006, where he carried out some of the initial reconnaissance of Helmand Province.

As a major, he later completed a six-month tour in Afghanistan as company commander with 1 Para, part of the UK’s Special Forces Support Group.

But in 2011, he quit the Army after being selected as Labour’s candidate to fight the Barnsley Central by-election called after Eric Illsley was jailed for fraud during the expenses scandal.