Police minister Chris Philp on Thursday backed spectators at The Ashes, Wimbledon and other sporting events intervening to try to prevent Just Stop Oil protests.
He said spectators stepping in to deal with such demonstrations would be “reasonable”.
But he believes it should first be the job of stewards and marshals at these major sporting fixtures to stop demonstrators causing havoc.
He also encouraged the sporting authorities to take out injunctions against Just Stop Oil protestors so if they are caught they face more severe criminal penalties.
Asked if he would be tempted to copy England wicket keeper Jonny Bairstow who carried off a demonstrator during the 2nd Test at Lord’s, Mr Philp said: “It’s reasonable for people to try and protect the event that they are watching.
“Obviously, nobody should do anything dangerous or hurt anyone.”
Pressed further on lifting protestors up and removing them, he stressed: “There are marshals and there are stewards whose job it is to do that and of course the police are there as well.
“I would say let’s let the marshals and the stewards do their job.”
Most sporting organisations are hiring more security personnel, and stepping up other measures such us bag checks, he added.
He also stressed that police in London are clearing the streets of JSO protests “within minutes”.
He also warned of the risks to demonstrators, drivers and other people at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on Sunday if Just Stop Oil target the event.
Mr Philp and Home Secretary Suella Braverman met with senior sporting figures and police leaders on protecting Wimbledon and other events on Wednesday.
He added on Times Radio: "We'd like to see obviously those sporting organisations like Wimbledon increase the number of marshals and stewards.
"They have to be more careful about checking people coming into sporting events and react really quickly when something happens."
He stressed that ministers "strongly encourage" the use of injunctions.
"At the meeting yesterday we had with sporting leaders we encouraged the use of injunctions because that allows for a much more severe criminal penalty if the injunction gets breached."
Just Stop Oil protests disrupted play on Court 18 at Wimbledon twice on Wednesday, interrupting British star Katie Boulter’s match on the second occasion.
A protester ran onto the court halfway through the first set tiebreak between Boulter and Daria Saville during their first-round match.
The man ran onto the grass during the change of ends shortly before 4.30pm throwing confetti and jigsaw pieces in a similar protest to one on the same outside court a few hours earlier.
Mr Philp stressed that action was being stepped up against JSO-style protests.
He said: “We’ve made a lot of progress in clamping down on their disruptive activity.
“If you think back to the autumn, they were blocking roads in London for extended periods of time...since then we’ve changed the law through the Public Order Act 2023 that recently came into force, and the police are now being much more robust in the way they act.
“So we’re now not seeing those M25 blockages on the streets of London, the blockages they cause are being cleared within a matter of a few minutes. So both the law and the police response has been enormously strengthened.”
