Former Conservative gets employed and forgiven (7)
I believe the answer is:
excused
'forgiven' is the definition.
(excusing is a kind of forgiving)
'former conservative gets employed' is the wordplay.
'former' becomes 'ex' (prefix meaning former or onetime).
'conservative' becomes 'C' (UK political abbreviation).
'gets' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'employed' becomes 'used' ('use' can be a synonym of 'employ').
'ex'+'c'+'used'='EXCUSED'
'and' is the link.
(Other definitions for excused that I've seen before include "Let off (a duty)" , "Exonerated" , "Made allowances for" , "Forgiven" , "Overlooked offence or released from duty" .)