As an MP, I feel it’s important to be transparent about everything related to my public role, including meetings, gifts and income.
Re meetings: I aim to publish details of all the meetings I have. This is standard practice for members of the European Parliament, and I think it should be standard practice for all UK MPs too. For the moment, there is no standard system for doing this so I’ve had to set up my own.
Re gifts: My policy is to politely decline gifts – I feel this is the clearest, simplest approach.
Re income: I work full time (and more!) as the MP for North Herefordshire and do not do any other paid work. (I do a small amount of volunteering for a couple of local charities with which I have been involved for some time).
An MP’s salary is £91,346 per year. This is a really large sum of money – more that I have ever earned before, and certainly more than I need.
Some years ago I took the ‘Giving What We Can’ pledge to give away a significant proportion of my income. I did this as an MEP and I am doing it again as an MP. I feel it’s important for me to live on an average income so that I can remain in touch with what life is like for ordinary people. I therefore keep only £2k per month of my salary (equivalent to the national average salary of £35k, after tax) and I use the rest to address poverty and inequality, as follows:
£1k per month, £12k per year to GiveDirectly a highly effective charity that gives unconditional cash transfers to poor families in East Africa. I’ve supported cash transfers for many years, ever since I did some research on the topic in 2008. I think it’s one of the most effective ways possible to tackle poverty and inequality. I also have a personal connection to East Africa, since I grew up partly in Kenya, and later worked in Uganda.
£1k per month, £12k per year to the Green Party, to support campaigns to get more Greens elected at both local and national level. I passionately believe in the importance of political change, and I know that winning change at the ballot box takes long-term investment of money as well as time and energy. I consider this to be ‘paying it forward’ to help the next generation of Green councillors and MPs, just as I have been helped by others to win my seat.
£1k per month, £12k per year into a ‘Constituency Fund’ that I’ve set up to support local causes.