A Conservative MP has been criticised for deliberately making it difficult for constituents to contact him.

Dominic Raab, the MP for Esher and Walton, has attempted to remove his parliamentary email address from websites so that voters can reach him only by post, phone or in person.

Not all MPs make their email addresses public but many, including education secretary Michael Gove, do.

Raab threatened to report one website to the information commissioner if it did not remove his email address from a "contact your MP" list.

Campaigning website 38 Degrees today printed an exchange between a member of staff and Raab, in which he demanded the site stop forwarding emails from constituents to his parliamentary account.

The MP said he had already had his address taken off the publicly available House of Commons directory "to avoid it being used by lobby groups such as your own".

In an email to 38 Degrees, Raab wrote: "Please understand that MPs get a high volume of correspondence and emails. Just processing the emails from your website absorbs a disproportionate amount of time and effort, which we may wish to spend on higher priorities, such as helping constituents in real need or other local or parliamentary business."

Johnny Chatterton, the digital campaigns manager for 38 Degrees, had asked the MP to clarify that he did not want constituents to be able to contact him "quickly and easily".

Chatterton said: "It appears that you are asking to be removed from a system that quickly and easily allows your constituents to get in touch with you about issues they care about.

"You mentioned complaining to the information commissioner. As an MP you are paid, with taxpayers' money, to represent your constituents, and we believe that as your parliamentary email address is in the public domain it's legitimate to use it to facilitate your constituents getting in touch with you. We have been in touch with the information commissioner to confirm this.

"Before the election, when you were still a candidate, you were happy to encourage people to email you and provided an email address for us to use – I expect some of your constituents would be disappointed if it was the case that you were less happy to be contacted now you have been elected."

In response, Raab said: "I am now formally requesting that you remove my email from your website system. If you refuse, I will submit a formal complaint to the information commissioner."

When 38 Degrees checked with the information commissioner's office, they were told they were most probably not breaching the Data Protection Act in using Raab's email address to "allow individuals to email MPs at their House of Commons email addresses about specific subjects that their constituents have issues concerning". Such use would fall within a politician's "reasonable expectation".

Defending his position today in an email to the Guardian, Raab said: "My blog and website advertise ways for constituents to contact me – by letter, surgery, telephone, comment on my blog and emailing my local association.

"Despite being on crutches after surgery, I am holding six open town hall meetings, starting next week, to hear directly from constituents across the constituency. I try to answer every letter and email in reasonable time. But, I request lobby groups remove my email from their systems – because they swamp MPs with automated emails, which detract time and energy from concentrating on those in real need."