He deserves to succeed (4,4)

I believe the answer is:

true heir

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'deserves to succeed' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot judge whether this works.

'he' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'he' is within the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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