Keep party dish out (8)

I believe the answer is:

conserve

'keep' is the definition.
(conserving is a kind of keeping)

'party dish out' is the wordplay.
'party' becomes 'con' (abbreviation for Conservative Party).
'dish out' becomes 'serve' (as in dishing out food).
'con'+'serve'='CONSERVE'

(Other definitions for conserve that I've seen before include "Make sparing use of" , "Converse about jam." , "Protect from destruction" , "Save - jam - husband" , "Protect; maintain" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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