While some of us struggle with our commute, spare a thought for Brighton and Hove councillor Maria Caulfield – hers is a 400-mile round trip.

The Tory councillor, Brighton and Hove City Council’s cabinet member for housing, has been selected as the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Caerphilly in South Wales – a Labour stronghold where the sitting MP has a majority of more than 15,000.

Coun Caulfield, who works two days a week as a cancer nurse, has two bases – one in Gelligaer, in Caerphilly, and her home in Brighton – and commutes between the two, campaigning, doing her job and also running the city’s housing portfolio.

She has been criticised by political rivals in Brighton after handing out election leaflets saying she lives in the small village of Gelligaer, in Caerphilly County Borough.

But Coun Caulfield said that unlikeMPsshe pays bills for both homes without the taxpayer footing the bill – and denied her decision to stand for Parliament has affected her duties as a councillor.

She said: “It’s no secret that I’m standing in Caerphilly.

I’ve been selected since before Christmas so if Labour has only just noticed it nowit shows I can do both. I have been doing it for nearly four months and I have not altered anything with my council commitments.

“I am spending a lot of time in Caerphilly but I am able to plan my workload so I am very lucky in that respect.

“If there are meetings I have to attend at council then I am able to do that. I haven’t been absent from any full council meetings.

“There is a general election coming up and people understand I have got to commit to that but it hasn’t changed what we have been able to do for the local community in Brighton.”

Labour councillor Anne Meadows, who represents the same Moulsecoomb and Bevendean ward as Coun Caulfield, said: “As she is saying she has moved to Wales, her commitment to Brighton and Hove should be questioned.

“I encourage more women standing for Parliament but not if it means the people you are already elected to represent are being let down so badly.”

Former council leader Simon Burgess, standing for Labour in Brighton Kemptown, which includes the Moulsecoomb and Bevendean ward, said: “I don’t see how someone can represent areas so incredibly far apart and claim to live in both.”

Stuart Gover, a tenant representative for North and East Brighton, said if Coun Caulfield was elected Caerphilly MP it would be a great loss to the council.

He said: “She is quite brilliant in the council chamber.

She is the finest housing councillor this city has seen for many a year.”