With immigration proving a central issue in the election, it is not surprising that the British National Party (BNP) won 191,469 votes nationwide.
Most spectacularly, the party came third in Barking, the east London seat held by former youth minister Margaret Hodge, pushing the Liberal Democrats into fourth place and missing second place by a mere 27 votes.
But with the election now over, youth workers will have a key role to play in easing racial tensions in areas with high BNP support.
Community harmony
One area where such work is going on is West Bromwich in the West Midlands, where the BNP got 3,500 votes. The New Deal for Communities-funded Greets Green Partnership's youth forum is one of the groups at the forefront of such work. The forum is made up of young people from a range of ethnic groups and runs various events to bring the different communities together.
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