Warrant queen held in hand — not the last (5)
I believe the answer is:
merit
'warrant' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'queen held in hand not the last' is the wordplay.
'queen' becomes 'ER' (abbreviation for Elizabeth Regina).
'held in' is an insertion indicator.
'hand' becomes 'mitt' (synonyms).
'not the last' means to remove the last letter.
'mitt' with its last letter taken off is 'mit'.
'er' put inside 'mit' is 'MERIT'.
(Other definitions for merit that I've seen before include "Quality deserving reward" , "Deserve, be worthy of" , "Goodness" , "Worth; deserve" , "Excellence that deserves to be honoured" .)