Independent 9,019 / Knut

The Met(ropolitan police) is a powerful (police) force

*(IN MANY COBRA); “negotiations” is anagram indicator; in the run-up to the Labour leadership election, Corbynmania has been a hot topic!

LEN (=McCluskey, General Secretary of the Unite trade union) + IN (=elected); the reference is to Soviet Leader Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924)

AM in *(CAGOULE); “shivering” is anagram indicator; guacamole is a typically Mexican dip, made of mashed avocados with tomatoes, onions and seasoning

Double definition: “the old man” is both Santiago, the hero of Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Old Man and the Sea (1952) AND a colloquial way of referring to one’s father

S (=south) + COTS (=beds, i.e. places to sleep); Scots are unlikely to have been born in South Bedfordshire!

Turn, i.e. reverse, “noc” to give “con”; cryptically, a nocturn is “a service sector”, in that it is any one of the three sections of the service of Matins

Double definition

T (=time) + WEE (=to go, i.e. to the toilet)

“Cat flea”, a “visitor” to a tom cat, is a Spoonerism of “flat key” (=used to let in)

CHAS (=Charles) + M (=married); chasms are often described as being yawning, gaping

Cryptic definition in which “wind” (=zero emission, green energy) follows “trade” (=business); a trade wind is a wind blowing towards the thermal equator and deflected westward by the eastward rotation of the Earth

I (=one) + SLING (=drink, as in gin sling) + TON (=well over two thousand pounds, i.e. in weight); Islington, formerly the site of the Blair family home, is often considered to be the home of Britain’s left-wing intelligentsia

GRIM (=just like it is up North) + E (=East)

The wordplay involves interweaving (=mingling) of TYLER (=revolting peasant, i.e. Wat Tyler, leader of the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt) and PARADE (=procession); Jeremy Corbyn, MP for Islington North, is one of the candidates for the leadership of the Labour Party

<s>EAT (=constituency, i.e. in Parliament); “leader going missing” means first letter is dropped

Cryptic definition: a return of the Trotskyists – “Trots back” – could allude to the militant, or extreme left-wing, tendency in the Labour Party

C<onservative> (“leader” means first letter only) + ANAL (=uptight and obsessive, i.e. anally retentive)

*(EMIGRE) + N (=north); “moving” is anagram indicator; the definition is “diet” (=entry at 15)

YEAR (=time) + NED (DEN=study; “to take up” indicates vertical reversal)

*(STATESMEN); “corrupt” is anagram indicator

CO (=company) in NEON (=gas); a neocon(servative) is someone quite a long way to the right of the political spectrum

*(MAG<g>IES); “heartless” means middle letter is dropped from anagram, indicated by “wicked”

*(MAN U ONLY + W (=won, in e.g. football scores)); “ugly” is anagram indicator

*(L (=Labour, as in LP=Labour Party) + IRE A BIT); “arousing” is anagram indicators; the reference is to Labour leadership contender Liz Kendall

HARD (=like Flint, i.e. the mineral, not Labour deputy leadership contender Caroline Flint) + LEFT (=gone); the hard left is at the opposite extreme of the Labour Party from the Blairites

Reversed (“up”) and hidden (“held by”) in “RoosevELT IT NEeded”

CHA (=tea) + IN (=batting) + E (=English) + D (=500, in Roman numerals)

M (=money) in SCRIP (=share issue)

MAIL (=armour, as in chainmail) + ER (=Queen); the reference is to US novelist Norman Mailer (1923-2007)

T-IGER (=Woods, i.e. golfer); “dumps American model (=T, Ford Model T)” means letter “t” is dropped and replaced by letter “e” (=European); the Eiger is mountain in the Bernese Alps with a much-photographed north face