Reactivate the relatives in the backing of senior figure (8)
I believe the answer is:
rekindle
'reactivate' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'relatives in the backing of senior figure' is the wordplay.
'relatives' becomes 'kin' (I've seen this before).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'the backing of' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'senior figure' becomes 'elder' (I've seen this before).
'elder' backwards is 'redle'.
'kin' placed within 'redle' is 'REKINDLE'.
'the' is the link.
(Other definitions for rekindle that I've seen before include "Revive (something lost)" , "Cause to burn again" , "Get the fire going again" , "Light (a fire) again" , "Cause to start burning again" .)