They wanted to stay, but accept democratic surpluses (10)
I believe the answer is:
remainders
'surpluses' is the definition.
'they wanted to stay but accept democratic' is the wordplay.
'they wanted to stay' becomes 'remainers' (voters who wanted to remain in the European Union).
'but accept' is an insertion indicator.
'democratic' becomes 'd' (political abbreviation).
'remainers' placed around 'd' is 'REMAINDERS'.
I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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