WEAVER Vale MP Graham Evans has organised an awareness event in Parliament to highlight the potential risks of children’s fancy dress costumes.

Mr Evans said: “As a father I know that children love dressing up, particularly over the Halloween period, which is why I was shocked to hear about the horrific incident last year involving Claudia Winkleman’s daughter.”

Claudia’s eight-year-old daughter Matilda suffered serious burns when her witch’s costume caught fire when it brushed against a candle at a house as she was out trick or treating.

Supermarkets have introduced more stringent testing following a campaign by Claudia Winkleman, the host of BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing, for tougher fire safety standards for children’s fancy dress outfits following the injuries to her daughter.

Mr Evans praised Miss Winkleman for her successful campaign, and hopes that more can be done to raise awareness of the potential risks of fancy dress costumes.

With this in mind, he has organised a Parliamentary awareness event on October 13, with his Parliamentary colleague, MP Nigel Evans, in Westminster, to encourage fellow MPs to highlight the risks in their respective constituencies.

“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,” he said.

“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 that 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, and I hope that my awareness event at Westminster will help to do that.”

Claudia Winkleman teamed up with BBC1’s Watchdog programme for the campaign to improve safety standards.