The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 plus 3 letter word GUESS WHO
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
G
U
E
S
S
W
H
O
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "debate his identity" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case debate his identity = guess who.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.