Victory in southeast he’s referred to with contempt (5)
I believe the answer is:
swine
'he's referred to with contempt' is the definition.
(swine can mean a dishonourable person)
'victory in southeast' is the wordplay.
'victory' becomes 'win' (a win is a victory).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'southeast' becomes 'SE' (synonyms).
'win' put within 'se' is 'SWINE'.
(Other definitions for swine that I've seen before include "such a difficult thing" , "See 9" , "cad" , "Contemptible person; pigs" , "Pig; unpleasant person" .)