Anti-poverty campaigner Bob Geldof today insisted that he was "in no-one's pocket" after agreeing to advise a Conservative party policy group on a strategy to defeat global poverty.

The former rock singer, who famously persuaded former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to waive VAT on the Band Aid charity single, said that if he disagreed with any Tory policy then he would say so publicly.

Geldof, who was behind this year's Live 8 concerts and is a long time backer of the Make Poverty History campaign, promised that he would still work with key New Labour figures.

He told Sky News: "I am not giving tacit approval. What I am trying to do is agreeing to help formulate a policy that I would agree with.

"Narrow definitions of what politics are do not interest me. I am not party political. I am completely non-partisan, as are those dying of want. It doesn’t concern me what people think about me."

Asked if he was being used, he said: "What’s being used of me is the knowledge that I can hopefully bring.

"If they then formulate a policy that is in disagreement with what I believe, I will then say that and I will say it publicly. They must know that I am in no one’s pocket, that I am not beholden to anyone.

There are no sides, it’s one issue. It’s people dying of want in a world of surplus, which is intellectually absurd and morally repulsive. It doesn’t matter what side of the notional political divide you are on, it rises above that."

The 51-year-old former Boomtown Rat, who received his honorary knighthood in 1986, has agreed to advise on new Tory leader David Cameron’s latest policy commission on globalisation.

There, Geldof will have to work alongside Peter Lilley, the former Social Security Secretary, who will chair Mr Cameron’s latest attempt to rewrite Tory policy and transform the party’s uncaring image.

Mr Lilley told BBC Radio Four's Today programme earlier: "He has got enormous knowledge and expertise. He has been working on this area for 20 years. He knows more people, he has got access to more expertise than almost anybody else in the world. That’s why I am thrilled to have him as an adviser to this group."

Geldof added: "If I can stick my tuppence-worth into them making new policy that will help them to push the Government further, then I’ll do it.

"That’s my job.I’ll still work with Blair and Benn and Brown, just like we work with the Republicans and Democrats and with Chirac in France or Merkel and Schroeder in Germany."

Geldof added: "It’s not as if this is new. I’ve done it for 20 years. I’ve talked to the Lib Dems, I’ve talked to the Conservatives, I’ve talked to the Labour Party. I’ve talked to the Government and I’ve talked to the Opposition.

"I don’t care who I have to talk to, to get to where we need to be to stop people dying simply because they are too poor to stay alive."

He went on: "I’m sure I am being used, as much as I’m being used by the Government. But that’s my job, to be used, so long as I can help steer the policy towards those who are dying. It doesn’t bother me that people say I am being used.

"I’ve said I’ll shake hands with the devil on my left and the devil on my right to get to where we need to be."

Mr Cameron, meanwhile, lost no time in using the appointment to promote the Conservative Party’s new appeal by linking it to the Make Poverty History Campaign that inspired so many activists to converge on Scotland earlier this year.

Mr Cameron said that his policy group on globalisation and global poverty would study the impact of free trade and examine the interaction between trade, sustainability and the relief of global poverty.

He added: "This summer, millions of British people took part in the Make Poverty History campaign. A new generation of concerned citizens want prosperity for themselves and progress for the poor — whether living on the other side of the street or the other side of the world."

SHOOTING FROM THE LIP

On Baroness Thatcher:

"I had this big fight with Madame X, Mrs Thatcher, 20 years ago"

After frank words with the former Tory leader in 1985:

"I got the X-ray glare at one point"

On Tony Blair:

"It is difficult for me saying this . . . he has pushed the boat out more than any other politician I have known in 20 years"

On President Bush:

"You’ll think I’m off my trolley when I say this, but the Bush Administration is the most radical — in a positive sense — in its approach to Africa since Kennedy"

On the European Union:

"The EU have been pathetic and appalling, and I thought we had dealt with that [famine in Africa] 20 years ago when the electorate of our countries said never again"

On the European single currency:

"It is not anti-European to be against the euro. I just have not heard an argument that stacks up for Britain entering the euro"

On politicians:

"You can’t trust politicians. It doesn’t matter who makes a political speech. It’s all lies . . . and it applies to any rock star who wants to make a political speech as well"

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