Crossword Genius

Body of followers not good for politician (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

churchill

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

'body of followers' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.

'not good for politician' is the wordplay.
'not good' becomes 'ill' ('ill' is the opposite to 'good').
'for' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (I've seen this in other clues).
'politician' becomes 'church' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'ill' after 'church' is 'CHURCHILL'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for churchill that I've seen before include "PM and Nobel prize winner" , "Wartime PM" , "Winston . . . . . . . . ., English PM war leader" , "He offered the British people "nothing but blood, toil, tears and sweat"" , "13 [THIRD REICH] 's nemesis" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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