Frenchman and German carrying uniform for unprincipled figure? (8)
I believe the answer is:
reneguer
'unprincipled figure?' is the definition.
(someone who renegues on agreements)
'frenchman and german carrying uniform' is the wordplay.
'frenchman' becomes 'rene' (common French name).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'german' becomes 'ger' (abbreviation).
'carrying' indicates putting letters inside.
'uniform' becomes 'U' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'ger' enclosing 'u' is 'guer'.
'rene'+'guer'='RENEGUER'
'for' acts as a link.
(Another definition for reneguer that I've seen is " Apostate".)