Conservatives following head of state's lies (7)
I believe the answer is:
stories
'lies' is the definition.
(story is a kind of lie)
'conservatives following head of state's' is the wordplay.
'conservatives' becomes 'tories' (Tory is an example).
'following' says to put letters next to each other.
'head of' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'state' is 's'.
'tories' after 's' is 'STORIES'.
(Other definitions for stories that I've seen before include "See 12" , "Tales" , "Accounts" , "For example, scoops" , "House sections" .)