Analysis Aletha Adu Sultana's alliance with Corbyn shows there is still life in the Labour left

This week's drama has shown that the votes for the populist challenge remain there for the taking, if anyone can get organised enough

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A year ago, many around Keir Starmer believed the Labour left had been sealed in a tomb. The suspension of Jeremy Corbyn, the disciplinary action against Labour MPs, among them Zarah Sultana, and the push to the political centre were supposed to fracture the party's leftwing.

But this week's drama, which included the prime minister narrowly avoiding defeat on the welfare bill after 49 Labour MPs rebelled, the chancellor's tears during PMQs, and Sultana announcing she was resigning from the party, has shown that the forces are very much alive. It has also shown that the votes for a populist challenge remain there for the taking, if anyone can get organised to win them.

In the months after Starmer's landslide win, figures excluded from Labour's selection processes have been regrouping in the spaces he does not occupy: outside Westminster. Some clustered around figures such as Jamie Driscoll, the North of Tyne mayor who was blocked from standing for Labour and subsequently quit, while others built networks in Tower Hamlets and Liverpool.