Crossword Genius

Official foolishly directed to support a Conservative (10)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

accredited

'official' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'foolishly directed to support a conservative' is the wordplay.
'foolishly' indicates an anagram.
'to support' means one lot of letters go next to another (in a down clue, some letters hold up others).
'conservative' becomes 'C' (UK political abbreviation).
'directed' with letters rearranged gives 'credited'.
'a'+'c'='ac'
'credited' put after 'ac' is 'ACCREDITED'.

(Other definitions for accredited that I've seen before include "Given official authorisation" , "Given official recognition" , "Broadcast" , "Certified officially" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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