Crossword Genius

Observing party policy, person's wise to keep schtoom in the end (2-7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

on-message

'observing party policy' is the definition.
(on-message means conforming to a political message)

'person's wise to keep schtoom in the end' is the wordplay.
'person's' becomes 'ones' (I've seen this in other clues).
'wise' becomes 'sage' (similar in meaning).
'to keep' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'in the end' indicates one should take the final letters.
The final letter of 'schtoom' is 'm'.
'ones'+'sage'='onessage'
'onessage' going around 'm' is 'ON-MESSAGE'.

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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