Foreign article on Tory peer doing away with hard competition (6)
I believe the answer is:
league
'competition' is the definition.
'foreign article on tory peer doing away with hard' is the wordplay.
'foreign article' becomes 'le'.
'on' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'tory peer' becomes 'Hague' (William Hague, member of the House of Lords).
'doing away with' is a deletion indicator.
'hard' becomes 'h' (abbreviation used in pencil classifications).
'hague' with 'h' taken away is 'ague'.
'le'+'ague'='LEAGUE'
(Other definitions for league that I've seen before include "Group of countries in mutual cooperation" , "Alliance - old measure of distance" , "Competing group of clubs" , "Group of sports clubs in an organised championship" , "See 11" .)