Mother who ‘blacked up’ young daughter for Halloween refuses to delete Facebook picture despite backlash

'People dress up as Jimmy Saville and no one calls them a paedophile and the people who dress up as Hitler don't get called supporters of Nazi propaganda either,' woman insists

The costume was intended to imitate a street seller in Benidorm (iStock)

A mother who "blacked up" her daughter for Halloween has refused to delete the picture she posted on Facebook despite a torrent of criticism.

Claire Flynn, 26, from Motherwell, covered her child in black paint and dressed her in a bandanna, with sunglasses and an umbrella hat.

She also gave her daughter a number of shutter sunglasses and a cardboard sign that said “Ray Ban €20”, for a costume apparently imitating an African street seller at a holiday resort.

She posted the picture on Facebook with the caption "Happy Halloween from Benidorm's finest......lookie lookie."

The post has received more than 700 comments, a large proportion of which accuse Ms Lynn of racism.

Ms Lynn responded to a number of the positive comments on the post, indicating that she found the costume funny.

She also refused to remove the picture and denied it was racist.

"I'm not going to apologise for this or delete my post. If people want to be all PC about it they need to take a look at themselves. It's really not an issue,” Ms Flynn told the Daily Record.

She said she got the idea for the costume while on holiday in Magaluf, when her daughter got a toy monkey from a street seller.

"It's a kid in a costume wearing face paint. People need to get a grip. I'm not going to bow down to anyone that has an issue with this,” she added.

“I'm not a racist and I've not seen anyone calling me a racist and I'm definitely not one.

"People dress up as Jimmy Saville and no one calls them a paedophile and the people who dress up as Hitler don't get called supporters of Nazi propaganda either."

She also added that she believe that racism in Scotland was “less of an issue” than in the US.

"I can understand the Americans being angry, because of the way blacks were treated over there,” she said.

"I don't think we have that same problem here in Scotland. I don't think racism exists in the same context and people don't get as upset about it."

Ms Flynn declined to comment when contacted by The Independent.