Political leader told stories and carried on (5)
I believe the answer is:
plied
'carried on' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'political leader told stories' is the wordplay.
'leader' says to take the initial letters.
'told stories' becomes 'lied' (I've seen this in another clue).
The initial letter of 'political' is 'p'.
'p'+'lied'='PLIED'
'and' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for plied that I've seen before include "Regularly went" , "Worked steadily at (a trade)" , "Did regularly cross" .)