Work in north-east? The answer’s in the negative (4)
I believe the answer is:
nope
'the answer's in the negative' is the definition.
('nope' means 'no')
'work in north-east?' is the wordplay.
'work' becomes 'op' (abbreviation for opus).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'north east?' becomes 'ne'.
'op' placed inside 'ne' is 'NOPE'.
(Other definitions for nope that I've seen before include "Emphatically not!" , "not with stress" , "Negative response" , "definitely not!" , "Certainly not" .)