Historic swindle involving Young Conservative baker (10)
I believe the answer is:
pastrycook
'baker' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'historic swindle involving young conservative' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'historic' could be 'past' (similar in meaning) and 'past' is found within the answer.
'young' could be 'y' and 'y' is found within the answer.
'conservative' could be 'c' (UK political abbreviation) and 'c' is found in the answer.
'swindle' could be 'rook' (synonyms) and 'rook' is found in the leftover letters.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for pastrycook that I've seen is " Pieman".)