Flash Republican eating bit of beef? On the contrary (6)
I believe the answer is:
streak
'flash' is the definition.
(I know that streak is a type of flash)
'republican eating bit of beef? on the contrary' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'republican' could be 'r' (abbreviation) and 'r' is present in the answer.
'beef?' could be 'steak' (I have seen 'Good beef ' mean 'steak' so perhaps 'beef' could also mean 'steak') and 'steak' is found in the remaining letters.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
(Other definitions for streak that I've seen before include "Stripe in the hair, say" , "Long thin mark" , "Strip of a different colour" , "act that may offend some spectators?" , "Run naughtily nude in public" .)