Miserable friend -- Conservative losing love (6)
I believe the answer is:
paltry
'miserable' is the definition.
('paltry' can be a synonym of 'miserable')
'friend conservative losing love' is the wordplay.
'friend' becomes 'pal' (pal is a kind of friend**).
'conservative' becomes 'tory' (I've seen this before).
'losing' is a deletion indicator.
'love' becomes 'o' (In tennis, 'love' means 'zero').
'tory' with 'o' taken out is 'try'.
'pal'+'try'='PALTRY'
(Other definitions for paltry that I've seen before include "Minor, insignificant" , "Insignificant, trifling" , "Mean, petty" , "Meagre; petty, trivial" , "Trivial, comtemptible" .)