Scales tipped against popular government leader taking a rest (8)
I believe the answer is:
sleeping
'a rest' is the definition.
(sleeping is a kind of rest)
'scales tipped against popular government leader' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'popular' could be 'in' ('in' can mean trendy) and 'in' is located in the answer.
'government' could be 'g' (abbreviation for government) and 'g' is found in the answer.
'leader' could be 'e' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'e' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
'taking' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sleeping that I've seen before include "Dormant" , "In the land of Nod" .)