A LONG-SERVING local councillor has been selected to fight for a Welsh Parliamentary seat for the Conservatives in the upcoming general election.

Cllr Pauline Jorgensen is standing for the Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney seat, a South Wales valley community with a strong mining heritage.

She has been a councillor for Hillside Ward on Wokingham Borough Council since 2008, but said family connections to the area led her to stand for the seat.

“My parents lived in the area when I was younger, and I have very happy memories of Merthyr Tydfil growing up," she said.

"Neither of them live there anymore, but I'm more than happy to go back there."

Cllr Jorgensen was selected only a week ago, having applied to the Parliamentary Candidates list before 2015.

She picked the Labour-held seat personally, and will be looking to reduce Labour MP Gerald Jones' 11,500 vote majority.

Jorgensen was very enthusiastic about the campaigning period, saying locals should vote for her as MP to be “part of a strong Conservative team led by Theresa May".

Cllr Jorgensen, who represents Hillside Ward alongside her husband Norman, was recently removed from the council's executive bench, where she held the post of executive member for residents' services.

She was instrumental in the borough's library shake-up recently and her husband has now taken over as executive member for libraries.

Speaking about whether her husband plans to join her in Wales if she wins the seat on June 8, Cllr Jorgensen added: “I still need to ask him about that one It will depend on largely on the election result."

She went on to say that there is the possibility of staying in Merthyr Tydfil even if she loses the election.

“It's an absolutely beautiful area, some lovely countryside and we're having great weather today," she added.

The Labour Party has held the seat since 1970, whilst the Conservatives have never held the seat.

Labour Party founder Keir Hardie represented the constituency as the UK's first Labour MP in 1900.

Cllr Jorgensen is not the only Wokingham Borough Councillor to stand for election in a distant town, new leader Cllr Charlotte Haitham Taylor previously stood as a candidate in Durham.