Corbyn and Sultana have 'patched things up' - but what really happened?

For decades he was the dissident backbencher, then unlikely Labour leader.

She was a firebrand left-wing Labour MP with a huge online presence. To the left - on paper - it looked like the perfect combination.

Coupled with the support of four other independent MPs, it held the blueprints of a credible party. But ever since the launch of Your Party (working title) the left-wing movement has faced mockery and exasperation over its inability to look organised.

First, we learned Jeremy Corbyn's team had been unaware of the exact timing of Zarah Sultana's announcement that she would quit the Labour Party. Then a much bigger row emerged when she launched a membership drive linking people to sign up to the party without the full consent of the team.

It laid bare the holes in the structure of the party and pulled focus away from its core values of trying to be a party to counter Labour and Reform UK, while also drawing out some pretty robust language from their only woman MP calling the grouping a "sexist boys club". It gave the impression that she was being sidelined by the four other male MPs behind the scenes.

This week, they tried to come together for the first time at a rally I attended in Liverpool and then, in quick succession, another event at The World Transformed conference the day after. But not everyone I spoke to who turned up to see the two heroes of the left found them all that convincing.

Jeremy Corbyn admitted to me that "there were some errors made about announcements and that caused a problem". He said he was disappointed but that "we're past that".

Zarah Sultana said they were like Liam and Noel, who managed to "patch things up and have a very successful tour - we are doing the same". The problem is, it didn't really explain what happened, or how they resolved things behind the scenes, and for some, it might have done too much damage already.

Layla signed up as a member when she first saw the link. It was the moment she had been waiting for after becoming frustrated with Labour.

But she told me she found the ordeal "very unprofessional, very dishonest and messy.