2698: Au pairs

Fourteen unclued lights comprise seven pairs.

Across

7 Looked for nothing when leader makes a U-turn? (6)

12    Medical instruments deal with something breaking old cast (9)

13    Maybe Queen’s speech is without purpose, on reflection (5)

15    Shot bird left, eaten by parasite (9)

16    Twins, perhaps extremely amoral, notable (6)

21    European dictionary contains chestnut for ‘imitated’ (6)

22    Wasted new mortgage in Scotland (6)

24    Coterie didn’t regularly boast duke (2-5)

27    Cut shaft, losing line (3)

28    Bird’s bone uncovered (3)

32    Think ancient Persian priests will stop in east (7)

33    Times introducing trendy revolutionary snack (6)

34    Port that iså red (6)

38    Press release before opening of enormous great structure (6)

41    More than one cocktail is a quid, surprisingly, around Ireland (9)

42    Exhaust unserviceable, emissions primarily amiss (3,2)

43    Hard test crushes son, at sea, way behind the rest (9)

Down

2 Just this splits bare metals (7)

3 Aussie idiot’s no good around legside (4)

4 Acetone almost corrupted sulphur compounds (7)

5 Foot, mine being bathed in English ceremony (8)

6 Pier having a black appearance? (5)

10    Catch broadcast of what golfer may have done (4)

14    Formerly not employed, aunties worried about it (9)

17    Chef’s beginning to chop up meatballs (6)

18    Those maintaining form in Oxford and Balmoral, say (9)

23    Bound to include papers put in order (6)

26    Youngsters lost fancy neckwear clips (8)

30    Where one may go awry in alert (7)

31    Alcoholic residue somehow vanishes when dehydrogenated (7)

35    Woolworths embraces value (5)

36    Mum starts to serve up salmon (4)

37    Old man holds aloft pre-adult peacock? (4)

39    Hawk emerging from lake covered in mist (4)

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A first prize of £30 and two runners-up prizes of £20 for the first correct solutions opened on 28 April. Please scan or photograph entries and email them (including the crossword number in the subject field) to crosswords@spectator.co.uk, or post to: Crossword 2698, The Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9HP.