Laid off politician for being unpunctual (8)
I believe the answer is:
dilatory
'being unpunctual' is the definition.
('dilatory' can be similar in meaning to 'unpunctual')
'laid off politician' is the wordplay.
'off' indicates anagramming the letters.
'politician' becomes 'tory' (term for a Conservative Party politician).
'laid' anagrammed gives 'dila'.
'dila'+'tory'='DILATORY'
'for' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for dilatory that I've seen before include "Time-wasting" , "Inclined to delay" , "intended to waste time" , "Lazy - slow" , "Procrastinating" .)