A liberal follows rotten tripe (5)
I believe the answer is:
offal
'tripe' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'a liberal follows rotten' is the wordplay.
'liberal' becomes 'l' (abbreviation).
'follows' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'rotten' becomes 'off' (rotten food is 'off').
'a'+'l'='al'
'al' put after 'off' is 'OFFAL'.
(Other definitions for offal that I've seen before include "Rejected parts of a carcase" , "Animal entrails and internal organs - worthless" , "cheap meat" , "Waste parts of a carcass" , "Meat product" .)