Parents Warned About 'Dangerous' Halloween Costumes
Cheshire MP Graham Evans wants parents to be aware of the safety risks when shopping around for their children's halloween costumes.
As thousands of shops on Merseyside stock up on Halloween costumes, parents are being urged to put safety first.
Cheshire MP Graham Evans is calling for fancy dress costumes to be re-classified as 'clothing' so that they undergo more rigorous safety checks.
At the minute, they're classed as 'toys' under law.
Last year, TV presenter Claudia Winkleman's 8-year-old daughter suffered serious burns after her costume went up in flames.
Graham told us;
- “As a father myself I know that children love dressing up, particularly over the Halloween period, which is why I was shocked to hear about the horrific incident involving Claudia Winkleman’s daughter.”*
“I’m delighted that the Business Secretary Sajid Javid has given funding for Trading Standards to conduct spot checks on hundreds of retailers to ensure that costumes meet safety standards. I also applaud Sainsbury’s and other supermarkets for introducing more stringent safety checks and would now call on others to follow suit.
“I am hoping to raise awareness among my colleagues in Parliament of the dangers of such costumes so they can take the message back to their own constituencies. Ultimately, we need to work to close this legal loophole so that all manufacturers have to comply with much more stringent safety tests and I will lobby to do this. However, with Halloween just around the corner, the key thing now is to spread the message far and wide to parents about these dangers''