Conservative into footwear causing gossip (7)
I believe the answer is:
scandal
'gossip' is the definition.
(scandal is a kind of gossip)
'conservative into footwear' is the wordplay.
'conservative' becomes 'C' (UK political abbreviation).
'into' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'footwear' becomes 'sandal' (sandal is a kind of footwear).
'c' put within 'sandal' is 'SCANDAL'.
'causing' is the link.
(Other definitions for scandal that I've seen before include "Malicious talk; outrage" , "Outraging event" , "Public outrage; gossip" , "Shocking thing" , "something injurious to one's reputation" .)