What Haughey's sensing when Mara says 'no more nibbling at my leader's bum' - we're going through austerity (7,3,5)
I believe the answer is:
feeling the pinch
'more nibbling at my leader's bum we're going through austerity' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot tell whether it can be defined by this definition.
'what haughey's sensing when mara says no' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'sensing' could be 'feeling' ('feel' can be a synonym of 'sense') and 'feeling' is found in the answer.
'when' could be 'e' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'e' is found in the answer.
'no' could be 'n' (common abbreviation) and 'n' is located in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for feeling the pinch that I've seen before include "having a lack of finance" , "Getting arrested" .)