Hard as the heart of a westerner (5)

I believe the answer is:

stern

'hard' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'the heart of a westerner' is the wordplay.
'the heart of' says the answer is hidden in the clue.
'STERN' can be found hidden inside 'westerner'.

'as' is the link.

(Other definitions for stern that I've seen before include "Unyielding part of the ship" , "Grim, strict" , "Back end of a ship" , "Unpleasantly serious" , "Inflexible; back" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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