The Green party has chosen “a committed local campaigner” as its candidate in the Makerfield byelection which is due to take place on 18 June.

Chris Kennedy, a nurse and children’s safeguarding specialist, was chosen after a hustings on Wednesday amid reports that the party was proposing to hold back from investing significant resources in the byelection.

The Financial Times reported that party members were wary of being blamed for splitting the progressive vote and allowing Reform to win. Because of that, senior party figures wanted to help clear the path for Labour’s Andy Burnham.

One senior party figure told the FT: “We do not want this one to go to Reform, and to be quite frank, we do not want Labour to turn around and say, ‘If you vote Green, you’re actually voting Reform’, because that will be used for the next three years.”

It follows a report in the Guardian which revealed that the Greens were locked in a “very civilised” internal debate about how to challenge Burnham.

One senior Green said: “The debate is what the campaign would look like. There is a world of difference between turning up to the hustings with a bit of leafleting, and what we saw in Gorton and Denton. Throwing everything at it would be up to the national party.”

The selection of Kennedy was welcomed by the Green party leader, Zack Polanski, who called him a “fantastic candidate”. He said the election was about “who is making the case for lower bills, warmer and more affordable homes and a greener and fairer economy”.

But Polanski added: “We will also use the byelection to press Andy Burnham on what kind of MP and prime minister he would be, given his mixed track record and interviews this week suggesting he isn’t committed to fair voting, public ownership and a genuinely new economic settlement.

“We’d like to know which version of Andy Burnham is going to show up.”

Kennedy said he was proud to be chosen. He said: “We want to defend our area against the politics of hate and division and bring people together around a positive vision for the future.

“At the same time, we can’t let this election be dominated by a Westminster psychodrama.”

Kennedy was chosen by local party members. According to the Times, the frontrunner had been Hayley Pierce, a portrait artist, but her prospects may have been damaged by social media posts which the newspaper published.

The election will be held on 18 June with Burnham, if he wins, expected to challenge Keir Starmer as prime minister.

Reform has named the self-employed plumber Robert Kenyon as its candidate, while the Conservatives have chosen a former mayor of Wigan, Michael Winstanley.

The Green party was approached for comment.