English mega-local elections, 2021

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

I have no idea why anyone would decide to extrapolate from local election results to the fortunes of a national political party and the degree to which voters approve of its leader. For instance, Labour has been in power in Sunderland since 1973 and one of its councilors (Thomas Wright) was discovered to be a pedophile last year and the council appears to have not taken action against him (?). Why wouldn't voters react nastily to this? Why wouldn't they decide "it's time for a change"?

At a fundamental level, local elections are about local issues, not about Brexit or anything like that. The few people who bother voting will vote based on whether or not they know some guy who is running, how they feel about graffiti on park benches or pick-pocketers etc.