Crossword Genius

Change of heart in Helen’s place for politician (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

tory

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'politician' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'change of heart in helen's place' is the wordplay.
'change' becomes 'dry' (drying is a kind of changing).
'of heart' means to look at the middle letters (I've seen 'heart' mean this).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'helen's place' becomes 'toy' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
The centre of 'dry' is 'r'.
'r' going into 'toy' is 'TORY'.

'for' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for tory that I've seen before include "type on right? Yes" , "blue" , "Opponent of 8 Down and 14 Across, partner of 14 Down?" , "A British Conservative" , "English Conservative politician or Donegal island" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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