Journalists surrounding popular Conservative and royal (8)
I believe the answer is:
princess
'royal' is the definition.
(princess is a kind of royal)
'journalists surrounding popular conservative' is the wordplay.
'journalists' becomes 'press' (the press can mean the newspaper industry).
'surrounding' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'popular' becomes 'in' (something that's 'in' is fashionable).
'conservative' becomes 'C' (UK political abbreviation).
'in'+'c'='inc'
'press' enclosing 'inc' is 'PRINCESS'.
'and' is the link.
(Other definitions for princess that I've seen before include "Female member of a royal family" , "Important woman" , "Daughter of a monarch" , "Royal daughter" , "VIP" .)