Before & After 36: Covered Up (meta)

**Hello again solvers,** and thanks for taking a crack at my puzzle.  Herein we have a bit of UK-centric politics / current affairs that may flummox outsiders, to whom I can only apologize: the UK Prime Minister, 1A 2D, has called a snap election (which is broadly expected to go pretty badly for him.)

5D also invites apology: it's intended as a so-called "& lit" clue, where the entire clue does double-duty as both definition and wordplay, with reference to the popular knightly dubbing of "Arise, Sir Such-and-such."  I suspect, however, that it doesn't really work -- and I'm sure you'll let me know!

ACROSS.  1A 2D. ||Anag. ("assembly") of IRISH + "defeated" = SUNK around "one" = A.||  4A. ||Skip alternative letters in "nurseunable".|| 7A. ||"Shot" = DRAM + "A" given.|| 8A. ||Last letter of "ruby" = Y + "fine" = OK + outside letters of "emerald" = ED.||

DOWN. 1D. ||Remove first letter from "filthy" = CRUDDY.|| 3D. ||"One" = I + anag. DALI|| 5D. ||Hidden reversed in "upRISing", & lit.||  6D. ||Containment of "one" = I in "morning" = AM.||

Nice one! Love 4a and 1a/2d. The &lit is a bit strained but I saw the intent 😅

I had a tough time with these &lits. I'm US, so that's part of it. Also, I'm used to &lits indicated by "!" not "?" and I think they should be as spar as possible -- e.g., no need for "? Indeed", but now that I think about it a bit more, is that even &lit? 4a was fun, trying to "nurse" (anagram) "unable," till I figured out what was going on.

Cryptic 5x5 #26 by tuber

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