Matthew Elliott is the chief executive and founder of the controversial think tank, the TaxPayers’ Alliance. The TPA is one of the most media-savvy think tank in the UK, getting over 700 media hits a month (around the same as Greenpeace). He speaks to Total Politics about cuts, climate change and how he plans to trigger a referendum on EU membership.

What would be the first area you would cut if you were the head of an incoming government after the election?
The first thing is a public sector pay freeze or a pay cut for mid to higher salaries in the public sector. We have basically moved from a situation in the mid-1990s where roughly public sector salaries for like-for-like jobs were about 20 per cent less than those in the private sector to a situation now where they are 20 per cent more. So the pendulum has swung. The first thing to do is to cut public sector salaries.

What can MPs do to restore faith in politics?
MPs often say to me: "How can we restore out reputation?" They often say: "How can we change the expense rules?" Or "How can we change our salary structure?" I don’t think it is part of the expenses or salaries or anything like that. It is basically the standing of Parliament. What it needs is for MPs to take powers back from Downing Street and reassert their influence as legislators. Over their past 25 years their role as legislators has diminished and their role as glorified social workers has increased.

Are there any politicians that you like?
I can think of politicians within each of the parties who I admire and who I have common ground with. I am pretty anti-politicians in many ways when it comes to all the parties. I am not convinced that any of them has the full package. I am not sure which party we are closest to if we were forced to decide.

How would you reform the political system?
What I am interested in is the increased use of referenda. I thought it was fascinating that in the Lisbon Treaty – one of the good clauses in there – is the idea that you can get citizens’ initiatives. If you get a million signatures across the EU you can have an EU-wide referendum. We want to define what it means by a million signatures – what time period you have to collect them in, what breadth of countries you need to get it from, whether it needs to be collected via the internet or literally pen and paper – we would be interested in exercising that right on an EU level. Also at a British level as well, I think the Conservatives are now committed to a similar policy. If you get a million signatures in the UK you can trigger a referendum. I am now currently thinking which issues after the election would be big enough for us to organise a UK-wide referendum over.

Any ideas what it will be yet?
The obvious one is I think people feel that they were denied a say on the EU as an issue. That is an issue which is still very much festering and I don’t think it is going away. There is a feeling in the UK that people want a referendum. People want to decide whether our future is within the European Union or should we have a looser relationship with the EU.

Would you call yourself a climate sceptic?
Green politics isn’t really my area but I think it is fascinating how public opinion has changed so quickly. It seemed only 18 months ago there was basically universal consensus about the environment and the importance of climate change and the importance of greener politics. I think the recession has changed that. Helping the environment was something that when the country was doing well, people felt they could afford to go green. Now we are in a recession the idea of bringing in more green taxes and the public sector paying for very expensive wide farms doesn’t chime with the public mood.

Do you think there is any organisation on the left that rivals the TaxPayers Alliance – something as media-savvy as yourself?
Not yet but I could see space for it after the election. Looking forward, let’s assume that David Cameron gets in with a majority. He will have his emergency Budget and that will include presumably fairly big spending cuts that have been quite widely trailed. That will probably lead to some sort of backlash within the public sector. That would leave a very fertile territory for a campaign group on the left.

Would you be interested in elected politics ever?
No. Not personally. I have never gone for the candidates list or sort election. It did briefly cross my mind with the whole MPs' expenses business. But my strategy was to wait until this year and see where the land lay. Most of the MPs who have done misdemeanours have now stood down or are going to stand down at the election.

Is it not misleading to describe yourself as the TaxPayers’ Alliance when you have only 35,000 members and you don’t have to pay to be a membership?
When it comes to the question of whether we represent taxpayers, if you look at the polling about what people think about how taxpayers' money is being spent and whether personal taxes should be cut, they are very much on our side. What we do is represent the views of the average taxpayer. If you look at the polling in the country the appetite is now out there for using the money saved from waste for tax cuts.