Conservative MP Louise Bagshawe told a hearing of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee (CMS) yesterday that the arts and heritage sector is “scaremongering” over the consequences of spending cuts.

Referring to a recent claim by Tate director Nicholas Serota that cuts would force many museums to close two days a week, Bagshawe said: “It strikes me that [this warning] isn’t the sector taking on board and being prepared for the new reality - this is frankly something that I feel is designed to scare the public.”

National Campaign for the Arts (NCA) director Louise de Winter responded by saying that reductions in Renaissance funding combined with local authority cuts would force many museums, particularly outside London, to choose between caring for collections and granting public access.

She said: “It is cuts at a local level that are really going to bite…I can see there having to be some very harsh choices about where the money goes and how you spend what you have left.”

Other witnesses at the meeting, the first in a series of looking into the funding of arts and heritage, included Alan Davey of Arts Council England (ACE) and Arts and Business director Colin Tweedy.

Davey faced particular scrutiny over The Public, West Bromwich’s delayed £32m interactive gallery, and ACE’s spending on administration, redecoration and staffing.

Museums Association (MA) head of policy and communications Maurice Davies said afterwards: “Conservative MPs on the committee seem to be trying to construct a narrative that the cultural sector is very wasteful - so cuts will be met by tackling waste, not cutting services.

“In fact it looks likely, and is borne out by the MA's Renaissance survey, that many museums are considering reducing opening hours as a response to cuts.”

MA research found that 44% of hub museums would reduce opening hours if funding were cut by a quarter.

The Committee will publish a report on its findings after the Comprehensive Spending Review is completed on 20 October. 

Click here to watch the Committee hearing. Louise Bagshawe's statement starts at 11.42:40.

With a week until the government's spending review, Museums Journal has launched Cuts Monitor - a space where you can tell us about how cuts are affecting the museum sector.

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