Rowed with a leftie — nothing to begin with (5)
I believe the answer is:
oared
'rowed' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'with a leftie nothing to begin with' is the wordplay.
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'leftie' becomes 'red' (red can informally mean a political leftwinger).
'nothing' becomes 'O' (looks like zero - 0).
'to begin with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'a' next to 'red' is 'ared'.
'ared' after 'o' is 'OARED'.
(Other definitions for oared that I've seen before include "ready for a row" , "Prepared for a row" , "Like a rowing eight" , "Rowed" , "(Of a boat) provided with rowing blades" .)