Local elections are won by those who bother to even vote, with turnout averaging 15-30% of the electorate and including EU citizens (my personal view is older, and foreign nationals make up a large %) The only time you get a bigger turnout is for a specific issue like a local school closure etc
Then when results look like this, the lazy folks who did not bother will get off their backsides for the general.
(Labour did not even bother to put someone up in my ward last time!).
The East of England and Hampshire will be going back to polls next year when all the boundaries change and go to Unitary Authorities - if you have a 2 tier (district and county) you will be next, so voting will be revisited in the next 2 years for large numbers.
Starmer is blamed for not being decisive. I like that, he is considered. The knee jerk ban all under 16s is clearly not working, and how does it fit with giving them the vote - are we expecting a school year of kids to have some who cannot see what is being said, and some who are suddenly given the vote without having had access to social media opinion?
He has delivered sweeping change to the NHS (I can attest to massive improvements in access and waiting times), and on track to save vast amounts to put into the front end services. Quite a bit has gone into education and child benefits. There has been a lot of trust building with the EU and US not to mention saving jobs in industry, and with war involvement on 2 fronts, there has been fuel subsidy planning to find money for that we do not have, as well as digging us out of a huge hidden budget deficit that was sprung on him. He should be able to rely on his cabinet who clearly now are showing their true colours and a civil service that seems to have been less than they should in terms of information supply, not to mention the Andrew crisis. He is only one man and has been in power for just a year.