The Government is facing a backlash from some of the most important figures in British culture, who accuse it of betraying promises to support the arts.
In a move that will alarm ministers just weeks before an expected general election, arts leaders have spoken over their concerns about the potentially devastating impact of a spending freeze.
Ruth Mackenzie, the Government's former special adviser to the Department for Culture, and the heads of some of Britain's most prestigious cultural institutions, including the National Theatre and the Tate, fear a return to the stop-go funding of the Conservatives that wreaked devastation in galleries, concert halls and theatres during the 1980s and 1990s.
A small elite who were invited to an arts summit at Downing Street in December, and who believed Tony Blair would not allow the axe to fall, are particularly angry.
Ms Mackenzie chaired the meeting on 7 December, which was attended by Nicholas Hytner, the director of the National Theatre, Sir Nicholas Serota, of the Tate, Vikki Heywood, the executive director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Philip Pullman, the writer, Melvyn Bragg, the Labour peer, and Anish Kapoor, the artist.
The funding issue was at the top of the agenda, after those who attended discovered a disastrous Arts Council funding settlement was pending.
Mr Blair was told that an additional
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