Breeding shown by Conservative female (5)
I believe the answer is:
class
'breeding' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'shown by conservative female' is the wordplay.
'shown by' says to put letters next to each other.
'conservative' becomes 'c' (abbreviation commonly used in UK politics).
'female' becomes 'lass' (lass is a kind of female**).
'c' next to 'lass' is 'CLASS'.
(Other definitions for class that I've seen before include "Category; lesson" , "Order - quality" , "period" , "Category (of things)" , "Elegance - form" .)