Politicians dealing with data leads to insight Cummings should be sacked (8)

I believe the answer is:

statists

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'politicians' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

I don't understand how the rest of the clue works.

(Another definition for statists that I've seen is " politicians".)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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