It has been learnt that possible privileges have been taken away from Labour MPs who abstained from a contentious vote on eliminating the winter heating subsidy for the majority of pensioners, and they have also been warned about their future behaviour.

The overall response to the revolt appears to have been less harsh than in July, when seven MPs lost their Labour whips for rebelling. However, the punishments have provoked considerable outrage, with one of the MPs describing the whips' actions “feudal”.

The whip for those MPs was suspended for six months after they supported an amendment that eliminated the two-child benefit cap.Nonetheless, Jon Trickett, the lone Labour MP who supported the opposition-driven motion last Tuesday to halt the modification to winter fuel payments, seems to have retained his position as party whip. Since the vote, Trickett and the government whips' office have not responded. He is still identified as a Labour MP on the official parliamentary website, though, so whatever action taken against him was apparently less stringent.

A total of 52 Labour MPs did not vote on the winter fuel payment motion, but government sources said that all but 12 of these had been given prior permission to miss the vote. The whips’ response to those who failed to vote without permission has been, in several cases, to send a letter saying their future behaviour would be monitored and that they would be denied privileges, such as help to get places on select committees. The rebels were told they should raise any future worries with the whips’ office or ministers.

It was emerged that whips also warned Labour MPs that they were not allowed to discuss the winter fuel vote and its aftermath with journalists.

The scale of Labour disquiet over the decision to block the annual winter fuel payment of either £200 or £300, depending on age, to all pensioners except those with the lowest incomes, is known to be significantly wider than the 12 MPs who abstained without permission.

A number of backbenchers who had publicly opposed the policy were given permission to miss the vote, with some saying whips had even encouraged them to find a reason to be absent.

Some cabinet ministers had also privately expressed significant concerns about the decision to remove the payment from all pensioners who do not claim income-based benefits such as pension credit, which was announced by Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, in July.

One MP who received the whips’ letter said they felt it had misjudged the depth of feeling over the issue: “Quite frankly, the letter is feudal and completely misplaced when people are abstaining to protect very vulnerable people.”

After the vote, Downing Street said that the decision over the payment had been made without a specific impact assessment on repercussions such as the potential effect on illness and death rates among older people.

According to a No 10 official, government agencies are not required by law to do detailed impact analyses on initiatives that would cost less than £10 million to execute.

The administration published a more constrained equalities evaluation on Friday night, as mandated by law. It stated that about 780,000 elderly persons in England and Wales were anticipated to forego receiving their winter heating payment in addition to failing to claim the benefits to which they are entitled.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN