A UK minister has warned that “appropriate discipline” will be imposed on Tory MPs who voted against the government without “specific constituency reasons” in last night’s chaotic vote on fracking.

“The parliamentary managers will discuss with colleagues who didn’t vote with the three line whip why that was. Sometimes there are very specific constituency reasons or indeed health reasons,” Anne-Marie Trevelyan told Sky News on Thursday.

Trevelyan, the UK’s transport secretary, said that if MPs were unable to justify their abstention, “the appropriate discipline will be enacted”.

The Labour party on Wednesday secured a vote that would allow it to bring forward legislation to ban fracking. The government wants to pursue fracking in order to generate greater energy independence.

Labour politicians claimed Tory whips, who enforce party discipline, attempted to physically push rebel parliamentarians into supporting the government.

Chris Bryant, chair of the Commons standards committee, said MPs had been “manhandled” and “bullied”.

The government won the vote by 326 to 230, but a significant number of Tory MPs abstained.

“I wasn’t in the lobbies, but I am shocked to hear the descriptions of what went on,” said Trevelyan.

The transport secretary said she hoped the speaker of the house Sir Lindsay Hoyle, who chairs debates in parliament, “will be investigating closely . . . to ensure that these scenes and situations do not happen again”.