Party craving most respected leader (5)
I believe the answer is:
doyen
'most respected leader' is the definition.
'party craving' is the wordplay.
'party' becomes 'do' (do is a kind of party).
'craving' becomes 'yen' (I've seen this before).
'do'+'yen'='DOYEN'
(Other definitions for doyen that I've seen before include "Senior member of a professional group" , "Most prominent expert" , "Senior practitioner" , "Senior male member of a group" , "Dean of an academy" .)