It's fair to say that the relationship between the online campaigning organisation 38 Degrees and Tory MPs is not great at the moment. For those not familliar with 38 Degrees, it's a site which mounts campaigns and then, based on users' postcodes, forwards on a pre-written email to their local MP.
Many have praised the site for encouraging engagement between voters and politicians, but over the past few weeks some Tories at Westminster have been rebutting emails sent to them as part of 38 Degrees campaign, by suggesting the site has a Labour bias.
It seems they are drawing on material in an internal party memo which was recently circulated by a government MP among Conservative backbenchers. It lists a series of alleged acts of favouritism towards the Labour party, and suggests that Tories could use the points to reply to constituent letters - of which MPs are receiving an increasing volume orchestrated by 38 Degrees.
The briefing pointed out that senior members of 38 Degrees' management had either previously funded the Labour party and Labour-supporting blogs, or had stood for election to Labour's national executive committee.
38 Degrees became aware that some Tory MPs were using this material in their responses, and issued a rebuttal. While they didn't deny that their co-founders had links to the Labour party, they insisted their actual work was politically neutral.
38 Degrees executive director David Babbs told HuffPost: "To suggest we are party political is completely false. We are driven by the passions and interests of our members – they decide what we campaign on. Our aim is to enable our members to hold the powerful to account and we’ve challenged politicians of every stripe, in this government and the previous Labour administration as well as big business."
But the spat reflects mounting annoyance among the Conservative party towards the campaigning organisation. It manifests itself in different ways; health minister Simon Burns told the Commons that 38 Degrees members were "zombie-like" in their campaigning tactics.
This prompted a furious response from 38 Degrees in the form of a HuffPost blog, and was followed up by a call on its members to write to Burns rejecting the claims.
Now 38 Degrees finds itself with a rival - or sorts. Tory MP Robert Halfon has been developing an alterative, right-of-centre based site called "Right Angle" - which began last month but has just had a major refresh and expansion.
Robert Halfon, the Tory MP for Harlow, who has launched Right Angle
Halfon told HuffPost: "38 degrees has done some great campaigning. I wouldn’t say they were fair, but they’re brilliant at what they do. I take my hat off to what they’ve done."
He envisages his site being quite different to 38 Degrees in that it won't just lobby MPs, but will take on businesses as well.
"It’s not going to be the mirror image of 38 Degrees because we’re not just writing to MPs, we’re also doing consumer stuff as well. Why, for example, does one petrol station in one area charge X amount and the one down the road is cheaper?
"38 Degrees' big weakness is they are sending hundreds of emails on the latest political fad - whether it’s the NHS risk register or hacking. I think we will do fewer campaigns, but they’ll be much more focused. And it won’t just be MPs that get emails."
Nevertheless, another kid on the campaigning block - with the prospect of more to follow - will increase MPs postbags, and some Tories remain worried about the impact sites like 38 Degrees are having on their workload.
Tory MP Michael Fabricant told HuffPost: "Well intended constituents are bombarding members of parliament of all parties with a mere click of a button, demanding explanations - in quite an abrupt manner - on all sorts of issues. Some are relevant, but some seem quite ill-informed because the legislation has already been put in place.
"I know that many MPs are getting snowed under with these constant demands for attention, and my concern is that this could be at the expense of constituents who have urgent personal problems that need resolving, or indeed have taken the time and effort to seek guidance on policy from their local MP."
Nevertheless Robert Halfon believes his contribution to the online campaigning world is necessary, because he's "hugely worried"about political disengagement
"I believe that people are moving away from political parties, in England anyway," he says. "You know how people say they don’t care about politics? That’s nonsense. They just don't care about Westminster politics and political parties."
Whether Halfon's fledgeling site will succeed remains to to be seen, just as it's currently unclear if Tory MPs will appreciate another campaigning site sending emails their way.