Popular Conservative finally admitted deserting naked woman, identity unknown (8)
I believe the answer is:
inconnue
'woman identity unknown' is the definition.
(term for a stranger)
'popular conservative finally admitted deserting naked' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'popular' could be 'in' ('in' can mean trendy) and 'in' is located in the answer.
'conservative' could be 'con' (abbreviation for Conservative) and 'con' is found within the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
(Another definition for inconnue that I've seen is " woman not widely recognised".)