I struggle with suspicion of social climbers (5)
I believe the answer is:
ivies
'social climbers' is the definition.
'ivies' can be an answer for 'climbers' (ivies are climbing plants). I am not sure about the 'social' bit.
'i struggle with suspicion' is the wordplay.
'struggle' becomes 'vie' (to vie is to struggle or contend with).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'suspicion' becomes 's' (this might be a standard abbreviation I've not previously seen).
'i'+'vie'+'s'='IVIES'
'of' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ivies that I've seen before include "Climbers" , "Climbing plants with evergreen leaves" , "Vines with evergreen leaves" .)