CALLS are growing for children's fancy dress costumes to be made safer - after the dangers posed by Halloween costumes were dramatically demonstrated by York firefighters.

Almost a year after Strictly Come Dancing presenter Claudia Winkleman's eight-year-old daughter Matilda was badly burnt when her witch costume brushed a candle on a doorstep, youngsters across York and North Yorkshire are still at risk.

The Press bought Halloween items - including a dress, mask and hat - from several major shops and asked firefighters at York fire station to put a flame to them under safe conditions to see what happened. Within seconds, the costume was burning and within a minute it was well alight, with molten material dripping to the ground. In less than two minutes, the entire costume and mask was incinerated.

York MPs Julian Sturdy and Rachael Maskell have backed calls for an overhaul of rules relating to the safety of fancy dress costumes, with a city GP also expressing shock that children's fancy dress costumes are not subject to the same rules as most clothing.

Dr David Fair, of the Jorvik Gillygate Practice, said serious injuries caused by flammable costumes include severe burns, disfigurement, lung damage, and even death.

He said: “I’m astonished that children’s novelty wear is not subject to the kind of requirements as normal clothing and I would envisage the results as being horrendous."

The labels accompanying the costumes made it clear the manufacturers were aware of the dangers and alerted parents to supervise their children and keep them away from fire. The costumes currently only have to be tested to the same standard as toys rather than clothing.

A Government spokeswoman said a nationwide investigation into the safety of children’s fancy dress costumes was underway, at the request of Business Secretary Sajid Javid.

"Trading Standards inspectors will carry out spot-checks on hundreds of retailers selling fancy dress costumes in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland," said the spokeswoman from the Department for Business Innovation and Skills.

"The costumes will be subjected to flammability testing to assess whether they are safe for sale and compliant with safety standards."

Sajid Javid said his immediate concern as a father and a minister was that children wearing such fancy dress costumes are safe. "It is unacceptable for any costumes to be sold that do not comply with safety standards," he said. "That’s why I’ve granted funding to Trading Standards to carry out spot checks as part of a nationwide investigation. Parents should feel confident that any fancy dress they buy meets required standards.”

Speaking yesterday, York Outer MP Julian Sturdy said: “Children’s safety must always be our number one priority... I am pleased that Trading Standards have now received extra funding to carry out spot checks. I have also written to the Business Secretary requesting that he reviews the current regulations as we must do everything we can to prevent any further tragic accidents from occurring.”

Rachael Maskell, MP for York Central, said: “Parents should be advised to be with their young children, particularly if there’s an open flame. No risk should be taken. I would very much support a review by Trading Standards to make sure children’s clothes are not flammable, they absolutely shouldn’t be.”

Leon Livermore, chief executive at the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, said it hoped evidence gathered through the investigation would help to establish whether current flammability standards were still fit for purpose.

Ashley Martin, of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), said after being shown The Press video: "The main prevention measure is to be aware of the dangers of candles and naked flames and ensure that children are not able to have access to them in a way that could cause clothing to catch alight.

"While RoSPA welcomes all work into improving flammability standards of costumes, this inevitably takes time and it will never replace the key safety message about safety around naked flames," he added.

*Our thanks go to North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service for its help in revealing the dangers.