Formalities favouring Conservative in contrivance (8)
I believe the answer is:
protocol
'formalities' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'favouring conservative in contrivance' is the wordplay.
'favouring' becomes 'pro' (being in favour of something).
'conservative' becomes 'C' (UK political abbreviation).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'contrivance' becomes 'tool' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'c' inserted inside 'tool' is 'tocol'.
'pro'+'tocol'='PROTOCOL'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for protocol that I've seen before include "Diplomatic etiquette or procedure" , "Poor clot involved in kind of status etiquette" , "Rules of conduct" , "Code of conduct, etiquette" , "Formalities" .)