Writer of leader in tabloid was furious (5)
I believe the answer is:
raged
'was furious' is the definition.
(I've seen this in other clues)
'writer of leader in tabloid' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'writer' could be 'ed' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'ed' is found within the answer.
'tabloid' could be 'rag' (informal term for a tabloid newspaper) and 'rag' is present in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for raged that I've seen before include "Felt intense anger" , "was having fits" , "Flipped one's lid" , "Spoke violently" , "Was violently angry" .)