Crossword Genius

First to abandon left-wingers' parties (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

socials

'parties' is the definition.
(I know this)

'first to abandon left-wingers'' is the wordplay.
'first to' becomes 'ist' (I've seen this in other clues).
'abandon' suggests deleting specific letters.
'left-wingers'' becomes 'socialists' ('socialist' can be a synonym of 'left-winger').
'socialists' with 'ist' taken away is 'SOCIALS'.

(Another definition for socials that I've seen is " Parties".)

I've seen this clue in The Everyman puzzle in The Observer.
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