Scoundrel capturing Conservative wearing the special gear? (7)
I believe the answer is:
ratchet
'special gear?' is the definition.
'scoundrel capturing conservative wearing the' is the wordplay.
'scoundrel' becomes 'rat' (I've seen this in other clues**).
'capturing' indicates putting letters inside.
'conservative' becomes 'c' (abbreviation commonly used in UK politics).
'wearing' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'c' inserted into 'the' is 'tche'.
'rat' going around 'tche' is 'RATCHET'.
(Other definitions for ratchet that I've seen before include "One-way toothed wheel" , "Device allowing motion in one direction only" , "Device consisting a toothed wheel and pawl that allows movement in one direction only" , "Toothed rack" , "Bar to fit the notches of a toothed wheel" .)