Artist defends Churchill video at National Portrait Gallery after being accused of ‘barefaced lie’

Helen Cammock says her comments blaming wartime leader for Bengal famine were intended to create dialogue'

A Turner prize-winning artist accused of telling a barefaced lie" about Winston Churchill in a video piece installed at the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) has defended her work, saying it was intended to create a dialogue" about figures in the gallery's collection.

Helen Cammock's 40-minute moving image piece called Persistence has been at the centre of a row about the role Churchill played in the Bengal famine of 1943.