Labour has appointed a Twitter "czar" as the party gears up for an online war in the run-up to the general election.

Following the success of last week's "welovethenhs" campaign on the social networking site, Labour MP Kerry McCarthy has been given the task of using the internet - and Twitter messages, known as tweets - to get the party's message across.

The Bristol East MP has been given the job by general election co-ordinator Douglas Alexander in a bid to combat the Conservatives' current dominance of the "blogosphere".

Gordon and Sarah Brown last week exploited the Tory row over the NHS by adding messages to the Twitter campaign defending the service from American attacks.

The campaign was a rare example of Labour outflanking the Conservatives on the internet as both parties seek to repeat the success of their US counterparts. David Cameron has led the way with his WebCameron site and the party benefits from a string of websites such as ConservativeHome.com

In an interview with LabourList.org Ms McCarthy said her role was to spread "best practice" among Labour candidates. "I'm not seeking to be an alternative to the Tory-supporting celebrity bloggers," she said.

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