Rain in European ship soaking politician (8)

I believe the answer is:

dampness

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'rain' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot understand how they can define each other.

'in european ship soaking politician' is the wordplay.
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'european' becomes 'dane' (Dane is an example).
'ship' becomes 'ss'.
'soaking politician' becomes 'mp' (Member of Parliament. I am not sure about the 'soaking' bit.).
'dane'+'ss'='daness'
'daness' placed around 'mp' is 'DAMPNESS'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for dampness that I've seen before include "Moisture" , "Being a bit wet" , "Moist quality" .)

I've seen this clue in The Hindu.

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