Second leader of Tories to cut nanny state (7)
I believe the answer is:
montana
'state' is the definition.
(state of the US)
'second leader of tories to cut nanny' is the wordplay.
'second' becomes 'mo' (both are short periods of time).
'leader of' indicates taking the first letters.
'to cut' means one lot of letters goes inside another (some letters cut their way into a word).
'nanny' becomes 'nana' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
The initial letter of 'tories' is 't'.
't' placed inside 'nana' is 'ntana'.
'mo'+'ntana'='MONTANA'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for montana that I've seen before include "The "Big Sky State"" , "State of NW USA" , "State N. of Wyoming" , "North-west US state bordering Canada" , "American state, capital Helena" .)