Boris, penning newspaper material that's shabby, is for the practical approach (10)
I believe the answer is:
pragmatism
'the practical approach' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'boris penning newspaper material that's shabby is' is the wordplay.
'boris' becomes 'pm' (Boris Johnson).
'penning' indicates putting letters inside.
'newspaper' becomes 'rag' (rag is a kind of newspaper).
'material that's shabby' becomes 'mat'.
'rag'+'mat'+'is'='ragmatis'
'pm' enclosing 'ragmatis' is 'PRAGMATISM'.
'for' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for pragmatism that I've seen before include "Realistic attitude" , "Practical approach" , "philosophical approach" .)