Signs of hesitation covering up traitor's mistake (7)

I believe the answer is:

erratum

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'mistake' is the definition.
(I know that erratum is a type of mistake)

'signs of hesitation covering up traitor's' is the wordplay.
'signs of' becomes 'er' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'hesitation' becomes 'um' (sound made when hesitating).
'covering up' is an insertion indicator.
'traitor' becomes 'rat' (rat can mean a treacherous person).
'er'+'um'='erum'
'erum' going around 'rat' is 'ERRATUM'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for erratum that I've seen before include "Mistake by Latin scholar" , "Published correction" , "fluff on paper" , "Misprint" , "Faux pas" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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