Broke out of purdah (4,2)
I believe the answer is:
hard up
'broke' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'of purdah' is the wordplay.
'of' indicates an anagram (the answer comes from or 'of' the letters).
'purdah' with letters rearranged gives 'HARD-UP'.
'out' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for hard up that I've seen before include "Panto Baron; needy" , "Badly-off" , "Having little money, almost skint" , "Out of funds - it's tough" , "Strapped for cash, it's tough" .)