You might have thought that nothing could be less controversial than running a party supplies business.

If you are the mother of the future Queen, and the Daily Mail is doing the judging, you'd be wrong.

The British newspaper is up in arms and Kate Middleton’s mother, Carole, is under attack after her party products website, Party Pieces, was accused of selling inappropriately sexualised outfits for young girls, including a mini-skirt for four year olds.

Campaigners said that the outfits aimed at kids aged ten years old – including a devil outfit marketed as ‘Hot Stuff’ and a costume named ‘Fallen Angel’ – risked ‘sexualising’ young girls.

After the Daily Mail contacted Party Pieces to say they were running a story on the outfits, the costumes were taken off the Party Pieces website.

Former Conservative minister Ann Widdecombe told Daily Mail journalist Tanith Carey, who has written extensively about the sexualisation of young girls, “If I were a parent, I would find these all inappropriate. I find particularly the titles [of the outfits] quite wrong.

“Effectively there are sexual overtones and that is inappropriate in a child. Are kids going to go round trick or treating in them? If so, what on earth do their parents think they are asking for?

“Halloween should be innocent, nothing sexual. These are awful."

It just goes to show why aristocrats in former times simply forwent trade in all its manifestations.