Hertfordshire’s former Deputy Police Crime Commissioner, Rachel Frosh, says she resigned because she did not feel able to comment on national political issues while continuing in the role.

Dr Frosh stepped down as Police PCC David Lloyd’s deputy this morning following intense criticism of her decision to retweet a quote from Adolf Hitler on her Twitter account.

She initially retweeted a post on January 31 which said "Dear Socialists embrace your inner Nazism" and had a picture of the Nazi leader with a quote from 1927 before deleting it.

However a screen shot of the tweet on her Twitter feed emerged on the social networking site this week prompting the deputy police commissioner to post an explanation distancing herself from its content.

Writing on her personal website this morning Dr Frosh, who was paid £20,000 for the two-day a week role, said: "I have been frustrated in the last two days that I have not been fully able to answer the press and twitter enquiries about that retweet - where I retweeted someone else’s link to Nazi-ism and Socialism.

"I am conscious that the Police and Crime Commissioner needs to have constructive working relations with local politicians of all parties.

"Working for him has made it difficult to answer the questions about why I retweeted the comment in the first place.

"So I have therefore resigned - because he needs to get on with his job, and I want to answer these questions, and also be able to comment on national political issues."

Dr Frosh, who was appointed to the £20,000 a year two-day a week role by Mr Lloyd following his election in November, concluded: "My considered view is that the origins of Nazi-ism do lie in traditional socialism, and when the BNP do well it is with disaffected Labour voters.

"That does not however mean that people in the Labour party or any other mainstream party have views that are in any way akin to the BNP or other racist parties.

"They should be placed apart from other parties on the spectrum - but it is still important to understand the origins of any support they have, or used to have to ensure such parties never gain power again."