The latch does still work, replaced it with one from the wreckers last Sept when the old one busted and since then I've had no issues with boot locking or opening.
From what I can tell its to do with the handles on the boot exterior not actuating the mechanism.
Handle in original position:
Exterior handle used:
The arm that sits behind it doesn't move at all.
When you push the arm that connects to the latch, the arm that sits behind swings around as it should but not when you use the exterior handles:
For now I've just used a cable tie to allow the handles to release the latch:
Drift Spec.
So, in short, has anyone had the same issue? If so how was it solved.
