Rebel, the fellow confronted by Conservative (3)
I believe the answer is:
che
'rebel' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are singular nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'fellow confronted by conservative' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'fellow' could be 'he' ('he' refers to a man) and 'he' is located in the answer.
'conservative' could be 'c' (UK political abbreviation) and 'c' is located in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'the' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for che that I've seen before include "Fighter" , "-- Guevara, revolutionary" , "First person" , "- Guevara, Marxist" , "Nickname of Ernesto Guevara" .)