‘Just an attempt to get sympathy’, cries Sunak (3,5)
I believe the answer is:
sob story
'just an' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both related to communication as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'attempt to get sympathy cries sunak' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'to' is present in the answer.
'cries' could be 'sobs' (sobbing is a kind of crying) and 'sobs' is found within the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sob story that I've seen before include "Pathetic tale" , "appeal to emotions" , "Tear-jerking tale" , "attempt to gain sympathy" , "Victim's tale?" .)