The heartless politician had spoken of time (8)
I believe the answer is:
temporal
'the heartless politician had spoken of time' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'the heartless politician had spoken' is the wordplay.
'heartless' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'politician' becomes 'MP' (Member of Parliament).
'had' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'spoken' becomes 'oral' (similar in meaning).
'the' with its middle taken out is 'te'.
'te'+'mp'+'oral'='TEMPORAL'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for temporal that I've seen before include "Limited by time" , "Earthly" , "Of wordly affairs, not spiritual" , "profane" , "Secular; of the temples" .)