Increasingly eccentric Conservative stood by Starmer after a change of heart? (8)
I believe the answer is:
crankier
'starmer after a change of heart?' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'increasingly eccentric conservative stood by' is the wordplay.
'increasingly eccentric' becomes 'kier' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'conservative' becomes 'C' (UK political abbreviation).
'stood' becomes 'ran' (both can mean ran for office).
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'c'+'ran'='cran'
'kier' after 'cran' is 'CRANKIER'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for crankier that I've seen before include "more ill-tempered" , "More irritable" .)