Gauche Tory leader pretends to welcome the French (8)
I believe the answer is:
tactless
'gauche' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'tory leader pretends to welcome the french' is the wordplay.
'tory leader' becomes 't' (I've seen this in other clues).
'pretends' becomes 'acts' (I've seen this before).
'to welcome' means one lot of letters goes inside another (in sense of 'inviting in').
'the french' becomes 'les' (les is the in french).
'acts' enclosing 'les' is 'actless'.
't'+'actless'='TACTLESS'
(Other definitions for tactless that I've seen before include "Insensitive, having no skill at saying the right thing" , "Unlikely to make Diplomatic Service" , "Lacking consideration" , "Lacking diplomacy" , "Lacking sensitivity, saying the wrong things" .)