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Backtrack twice and workers lit up by party leader? I don't believe you! (4,4,5,2,4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

liar liar pants on fire

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'backtrack twice' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot tell whether it can be defined by this definition.

'workers lit up by party leader? i don't believe you' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'workers' could be 'ants' (I've seen this before) and 'ants' is present in the answer.
'party' could be 'l' and 'l' is found within the answer.
'leader?' could be 'f' (I have seen 'German leader ' mean 'f' so perhaps 'leader' could also mean 'f') and 'f' is found within the answer.
'i' could be 'a' and 'a' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).

'and' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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