Police and crime commissioner David Lloyd

THE police and crime commissioner for Hertfordshire is unsure whether he will hire a new deputy after his second-in-command stepped down.

Commissioner David Lloyd has not decided whether he will replace Dr Rachel Frosh, who handed in her resignation after retweeting a Twitter post which included an Adolf Hitler quote.

“I’ve not made any decision yet,” said Commissioner Lloyd. “I will reflect on it and come to a conclusion by about May or June.

“I will need to think through the job specification a bit more and I will think about the process of appointing a deputy if I do decide to have one.

“Some police and crime commissioners don’t have a deputy while some seemingly have 10 of them so it’s early days and I will have to think about it.”

Dr Frosh, who was paid a £20,000 annual salary for working two days a week, stepped down as commissioner Lloyd’s deputy to enable her to explain her position.

Writing on her personal website, she said: “I felt that I could not continue in that role and at the same time defend myself in the regard that the tweet was about exploring the socialist roots of Nazism – nothing else.

“It came over as insulting the Labour party and I therefore felt that it would damage the police and crime commissioner’s work with local councils.”

Dr Frosh, who works as a GP and is a Conservative town councillor for Harpenden, has since been suspended from the party’s candidate list, but expects to be reinstated when the facts are reviewed.