Dukes flanking English girl as stated (8)
I believe the answer is:
declared
'stated' is the definition.
(I know that stated can be written as declared)
'dukes flanking english girl' is the wordplay.
'dukes' becomes 'dd' (an abbreviation for duke written twice).
'flanking' means one lot of letters goes inside another (I've seen this in other clues).
'english' becomes 'E' (abbreviation).
'girl' becomes 'clare' ().
'e'+'clare'='eclare'
'dd' going around 'eclare' is 'DECLARED'.
'as' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for declared that I've seen before include "Announced formally" , "Announced publicly" , "Spoke or said dramatically" , "Announced, proclaimed" , "Avowed openly" .)