Politician said the leading newspapers are akin to plastic wrap (9)
I believe the answer is:
polythene
'plastic wrap' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how they can define each other.
'politician said the leading newspapers are akin' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'politician' could be 'pol' (synonyms) and 'pol' is found within the answer.
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'to' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for polythene that I've seen before include "A lightweight thermoplastic" , "Strange telephony provides a lightweight material, used in packaging" , "Plastic substance" , "A light plastic material used for wrapping" , "Synthetic thermoplastic used for packaging, etc" .)