Eco-activists who have caused chaos to drivers could be banned from the entire motorway network.
Government lawyers were last night examining whether to apply for sweeping powers that could see protesters locked up if they set foot on the trunk roads.
It comes after an interim injunction was granted banning them from the M25, the scene of five disruptive protests in the past ten days.
Breaching the injunction could lead to up to two years in jail, an unlimited fine and confiscation of assets.
However, just hours after the injunction was granted yesterday, activists blocked the road outside the Home Office in London and burned copies of their police bail papers.
Protesters from Insulate Britain sit on the road during a demonstration outside the Home Office in central London
Protesters occupy the lanes on the M25 in Surrey as they continue with their demonstrations
Home Secretary Priti Patel said the injunction was a 'important step' in stopping activists 'putting lives needlessly at risk on our busy roads'
A spokesman for Insulate Britain – an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion – accused Home Secretary Priti Patel of 'missing the bigger picture'.
'Currently 8,500 people a year die unnecessarily in the UK because of their frozen homes and climate collapse presents an incalculable threat to our way of life,' the spokesman said.
'A more measured way in which she could discharge her ministerial responsibility would be to ask the Prime Minister to start the process of insulating Britain's leaky homes.
'As soon as the Government makes a meaningful statement that we can trust, we will leave the motorway.'
An application for a full injunction, due to be heard at the High Court on October 5, could be far broader in scope and ministers are also considering other measures to stop the protests, it is understood.
A Department for Transport spokesman said National Highways would consider securing 'additional powers of arrest' for police.
Miss Patel said: 'This injunction is an important step in stopping these activists putting lives needlessly at risk on our busy roads.
'Peaceful protest is a cornerstone of our democracy and there will always be space for people to make their voices heard. It cannot be at the expense of public safety. The police have our full support in cracking down on this reckless behaviour.'
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told MPs the Government would look at changing the law to deal with protesters in future.
'We will review the powers, because clearly it's unacceptable for people to walk on to, not just a major highway, but motorway, to stop the traffic and be released the next day and do the same thing again,' he said.
Government lawyers were last night examining whether to apply to apply for sweeping powers that could see eco-activists locked up if they set foot on the motorway network
Eco activists from the environmental group 'Insulate Britain' burn their police letters containing bail conditions and warnings of arrest
Police minister Kit Malthouse told MPs that the injunction 'should act as a major deterrent'.
Tory MP Lee Anderson told the Commons that police should 'adopt a zero-tolerance approach and as soon one as of these morons steps foot on the motorway they should be carted off in an electric police van and locked up in a fully insulated cell'.
Holly Lynch, a Labour home affairs spokesman, acknowledged the right to protest but said she 'backed the police' if protests were unsafe or illegal.
Outside the Home Office in central London yesterday, Insulate Britain activist Stephen Pritchard, 67, a property maintenance worker from Somerset, burned his bail conditions and said he had been arrested three times so far.
'We explain to the police each time they arrest us that we are going to go straight back out and obstruct the highway again. We want to be locked up in order to force the Government to do something,' he said.
'If they put us in prison for years, then we have won. This is the power of nonviolent
