Prime Minister Tony Blair has been accused of copying his latest vote-winning idea from an internet consultancy in Hove.

And his high-profile launch of the Government's Big Conversation web site has prompted a flood of visits to the firm's web site.

Jamie Roy and Liz Sparham, who run internet research consultancy Planetary Tribe, based in Brunswick Square, set up their Big Conversation more than two years ago and have enjoyed a steady stream of visitors since.

However, traffic to their site has rocketed since Mr Blair launched his own question board with an almost identical web address.

Both sites cover similar topics, including war and peace, education, health, asylum and pensions, and offer the public a place to log their opinions.

But unlike Labour's www.bigconversation.org.uk, where contributions are filtered by the party before going on the site, Planetary Tribe's www.thebigconversation.org publishes all comments uncensored.

Mr Roy, Planetary Tribe's founding director, said: "They can't plead ignorance as we recently carried out a big research project for the Department of Health using The Big Conversation web site for 18 months.

"Our web site must have gone through people in Government - someone from the Cabinet office rang up to say how great our work was.

"It could be massive crossed wires - perhaps someone didn't fully check up on the information."

However, he thinks the "mix up" could be positive.

Mr Roy, 32, said: "I reckon there was common ground - we both felt it was a good idea. Some people have poured their hearts out on our web site. There are some great ideas there.

"The Government has inadvertently jump-started the genuine Big Conversation - not the closed email box offered on its own site but the real thing."

Mr Roy has tried to contact Labour to no avail.

He said: "I've called and sent an email to their site at the weekend saying I was the director of the original Big Conversation site.

"On Tuesday I got an automated message back to say my comment was being processed. That isn't a conversation.

"Perhaps we can work together. I would rather collaborate than get into a legal argument but it would have been better if they had talked to us first."