Pet socialist leader following worries (6)
I believe the answer is:
caress
'pet' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'socialist leader following worries' is the wordplay.
'leader' says to take the initial letters.
'following' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'worries' becomes 'cares' (I've seen this before).
The first letter of 'socialist' is 's'.
's' put after 'cares' is 'CARESS'.
(Other definitions for caress that I've seen before include "Stroke affectionately" , "Scares with loving stroke" , "Scares with loving gesture" , "Stroke lovingly" , "Gentle stroke" .)