Crossword Genius

English politician, extremely tawdry and hollow (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

empty

'hollow' is the definition.
(I know that hollow can be written as empty)

'english politician extremely tawdry' is the wordplay.
'english' becomes 'E' (abbreviation).
'politician' becomes 'MP' (Member of Parliament).
'extremely' means to remove the middle letters (only the extremes of the word are used).
'tawdry' with its centre taken out is 'ty'.
'e'+'mp'+'ty'='EMPTY'

'and' is the link.

(Other definitions for empty that I've seen before include "vain" , "Containing nothing" , "Cleared out" , "worthless" , "(Of words) insincere" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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