North Herefordshire’s recently elected Green MP Ellie Chowns is giving away around half of her parliamentary salary.

She wrote on her website the standard MP’s salary of £91,346, amounting to take-home pay of £63,538, is “a really large sum of money – more that I have ever earned before, and certainly more than I need”.

She said she would only keep £2,000 a month after tax from her parliamentary pay, giving £10,000 each to the Green Party, to a charity supporting poor families in Africa, and to a “constituency fund” to tackle inequality locally.

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“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,” she wrote.

And in the wake of ongoing controversy over government ministers accepting “freebies”, she said: “My policy is to politely decline gifts.”

She will also publish details of all her work meetings, which she said was “standard practice” in her previous role as member of the European Parliament, and “should be for all UK MPs too”.

Her latest entry in the parliamentary register of members' financial interests declares that she received a final payment of £975 in July for her work as Herefordshire ward councillor, which she has now stepped down from.

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“This payment will be repaid,” he record states, and adds that she has also ceased her unpaid role as lecturer at the University of Birmingham.

The register, which covers the most recent 12-month period, lists 11 individual donations to Dr Chowns under “support linked to an MP but received by a local party organisation” totalling £70,441, including one of £5,000 from broadcaster and Herefordshire resident Kevin McCloud.

Another donation of £5,000 was received from a London-based investment firm. Such donations can be in cash or in kind.

The county’s other MP, Jesse Norman, who represents Hereford and South Herefordshire for the Conservatives, received payments totalling £6,685 arising from his book writing, including £2,086 from the BBC “for licensing rights for broadcast of a book”.

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His well-received historical thriller The Winding Stair was published in June last year and he has also written several works of non-fiction. He has previously vowed to give his book earnings to local charities.

Mr Norman received a further £673 for “academic work” from the US-based Liberty Fund, and hospitality to the value of £1,010 to attend the Franco-British Colloque conference in Versailles in January.

His local party office received £19,000 from four individuals and a further £16,000 from companies and associations.