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Unusual alarm when Conservative gets in (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

scarce

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'unusual' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'alarm when conservative gets in' is the wordplay.
'alarm' becomes 'scare' (I've seen this before).
'when conservative' becomes 'c' (UK political abbreviation. I am not sure about the 'when' bit.).
'gets in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'scare' going around 'c' is 'SCARCE'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for scarce that I've seen before include "Deficient in quantity" , "Not plentiful, hard to find" , "Hard to obtain" , "Like gold dust" , "Not plentiful, in short supply" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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