18 across
Excuses
politician
embraced
by
alien
in
sex
romp
(7)
Excuses politician embraced by alien in sex romp (7)
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The definition is at the beginning of the clue.
How the clue works
Excuses is your definition — freeing someone from an obligation. For the wordplay, split sex romp so that sex gives you EX and S (one at each end), and romp gives you the letters to work with in the middle: put MP (politician) inside ET (the alien, doing the embracing) to get EMPT. Then chain EX + EMPT + S together and there's your answer.