Social status of Conservative having lost seat (5)
I believe the answer is:
caste
'social status' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'conservative having lost seat' is the wordplay.
'conservative' becomes 'c' (abbreviation commonly used in UK politics**).
'having' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'lost' indicates an anagram.
'seat' with letters rearranged gives 'aste'.
'c'+'aste'='CASTE'
'of' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for caste that I've seen before include "Persons with class" , "Social division in India" , "Social class in India" , "Division of Hindu society" , "Hindu determinant of status" .)