Swimmer needs British papers (5)
I believe the answer is:
bream
'swimmer' is the definition.
(bream is a kind of fish)
'british papers' is the wordplay.
'british' becomes 'b' (abbreviation e.g. in 'BBC').
'papers' becomes 'ream' (I've seen this before).
'b'+'ream'='BREAM'
'needs' is the link.
(Other definitions for bream that I've seen before include "Fish - British classical guitarist, b. 1933" , "Fish - English guitarist" , "Amber kind of fish" , "Broad, thin fish" , "Bar me from the freshwater fish" .)