THE Labour party has turned to an American internet guru to teach it the tricks of voter interaction and cyber fundraising ahead of next year’s election.

Zack Exley, a “cyber activist” who was hired to work on John Kerry’s American presidential campaign in 2004 as director of online communication and organisation, will meet Labour leader Pat Rabbitte and the party’s election strategy team later this month.

The new recruit will remain on board until next summer’s election, tutoring the party in online canvassing. According to senior party sources, the alliance is based on “political solidarity” rather than a commercial payout.

“He’s a guy who shares our politics,” said Mike Allen, the party’s general secretary. “He’s got a lot to say and he’s very keen to say it to us. We’re hoping he’ll inform our party strategy over the coming months, and that he and other web people in America will assist us through the election as well.”

Exley, a Democrat, and expert in internet campaigning, was introduced to the party by Tom Duke, Labour’s technical expert. Senior party members met him during last year’s British general election, where he was drafted in to run Tony Blair’s internet campaign. One week later, he was in Tralee, speaking at Labour’s party conference.

Over the coming months, Labour’s website will undergo a radical overhaul to make it more appealing to voters. Rabbitte, Liz McManus, the deputy leader, and other TDs will interact with bloggers online. Election candidates will be encouraged to host their own online blogs inviting questions from the public and updating the site with details from their political diaries. Exley, who pioneered the use of e-mails to supporters appealing for money, a tactic used by the British Labour party last year, will also use his expertise to help raise funds ahead of the election.

Exley has earned a reputation as a controversial political activist, but Labour said its involvement with the consultant does not include any dirty tactics.

“Web campaigning has moved on and we need to move with it,” said Allen. “It’s now mostly a tool to communicate directly with voters and communicate in a way that will not intrude on their lives, but which is also convenient. A lot of people don’t get home till very late and don’t want to be taken away from what they are doing by canvassers when they are at home. But if they do have an interest in political messages, then that’s where the internet comes in.”

Exley has been given the credit for turning the internet into a political tool in American presidential campaigns.

He made a name for himself in America through “cybersquatting”, buying up internet domains in the name of a party or politician and then using them to help their opponents. He became a hate figure for supporters of George W Bush in 1998, after he founded a website called GWBush.com, which poked fun at the then-presidential front-runner.

The site first hit the headlines after a satirical press release from “the Bush campaign” announced a plan to pardon 1m drug prisoners, as long as they promised to learn from their mistakes. When the media made inquiries about the policy, the Bush camp intervened and tried to shut down Exley’s website. In one public appearance, Bush called Exley “a garbage man”.

Exley went on to work for MoveOn.org, a major player in the 2000 presidential election which engaged in grassroots campaigning and claimed to have built an online community of some 2m political activists. MoveOn was criticised by several Jewish advocacy groups, among others, when it posted a video comparing Bush to Adolf Hitler. In 2003, he worked on the Howard Dean campaign, before Kerry hired him.