| OLDGUARD | The conservative element in a political party (3,5) |
| WISHBONE | A fowl's forked furcula or "merrythought", named for a custom of two people pulling it apart in blithesome divination as a good luck charm; a divided spar; or, a V-shaped element in a suspension syste |
| CAMPAIGN | Am pacing about in a political battle (8) |
| MISTRESS | Woman in a political scandal |
| THEORY | An idea by a man in a political party (6) |
| TEASPOON | Stirring element in a service? (8) |
| ASTATINE | Rare element in a drug, ecstasy |
| TUNGSTEN | Metallic element in a strangely snug tent (8) |
| LYNCHPIN | Important element in a mechanism or organisation (8) |
| REACTANT | Changing element in a chemical process (8) |
| REARGUARD | Conservative element in an organisation set up distribution of a drug (9) |
| WHIP | An official who enforces discipline in a political party (4) |
| ZINC | The last character to join in Conservative element (4) |
| BARNSTORM | To make a rapid tour of an area in a political campaign, especially in the U.S. (9) |
| STAND | In a political context, to run in order to sit |
| PACT | Ready for a holiday, we hear, in a political agreement (4) |
| HYPOSULPHERIC | Relating to a yellow element in a lower state of oxidation than the element's compounds (13) |
| DETAIL | From "to cut", an individual fact or item; an unimportant part; an element in a painting, considered in isolation; or, a squad assigned with a special duty or mission (6) |
| INFIMUM | In mathematics, the largest element in a set that is less than or equal to all the other elements (7) |
| STRIPTEASE | 1996 film starring Demi Moore as a single mother who is caught up in a political scandal |
