SOUTHEND Labour’s chairman appeared to be on the verge of quitting the party in a Twitter meltdown, citing a “toxic atmosphere” in the party.

Matthew Dent’s comments came as Labour leadership challenger Angela Eagle had a brick thrown through her window.

Mr Dent, 25, said he stayed on in his position as chairman of Rochford and Southend East Labour yesterday following pleas from local members after publicly tweeting he was tired of “being denounced as a traitor” for opposing party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Mr Dent tweeted he was “told to get out of the party,” adding “I really do think I’m done.”

Mr Dent, who has been chairman of the association since February and a party member since 2010, tweeted the Labour Party had become “so hostile, so unwelcome, so offensively intolerant,” that there was “no place left” for him in it and he“could not, in good conscience, ask anybody to join.”

Speaking to the Echo yesterday, he said: “I’m hanging on at the moment at the request of some of the members of the local party but the attack on Angela Eagle coming so soon after Jo Cox’s murder has me wondering where politics is going at the moment.

“It doesn’t really go with Jeremy Corbyn’s gentler politics and, while I don’t know if it was a Corbyn supporter who bricked Angela’s office, it’s not down to one side, it’s down to the toxic atmosphere created in politics through the issues in the Labour Party and in the fallout from Brexit.

Mr Dent added: “In the local party, there are a lot of different opinions, but it’s very cordial. However I’ve seen people I respect receive a lot of abuse online which is absolutely uncalled for. You don’t have to look far in the wake of Angela Eagle’s leadership challenge to see a lot of misogynistic and homophobic abuse which wouldn’t be tolerated in any political party.”

Ms Eagle launched a leadership challenge against Jeremy Corbyn on Monday after almost the entire Shadow Cabinet resigned in protest at Mr Corbyn’s performance for the Remain side in the EU referendum.

Mr Dent said he saw Theresa May as a strong threat to Labour under Corbyn. He said: “Theresa May said a lot of things I wanted to hear from a Labour leader, and a lot of what she said was lifted from Ed Miliband.

“She is my parents’ MP and, while disagree with her on a lot of things, I have a lot of respect for her and she has a lot of respect in the country. She’s the one we need to worry about because she will be the most difficult to defeat in an election.”