American welcome in Tory pad (7)
I believe the answer is:
cushion
'pad' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'american welcome in tory' is the wordplay.
'american' becomes 'us'.
'welcome' becomes 'hi' (I've seen this in other clues).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'tory' becomes 'con' (abbreviation for Conservative).
'us'+'hi'='ushi'
'ushi' inserted into 'con' is 'CUSHION'.
(Other definitions for cushion that I've seen before include "Soften (the effect of an impact)" , "Soft pad, of feathers say" , "Large pad" , "Part of a billiard table" , "Protect from blow" .)