Robin Cook has appealed to the nation's children not to upset older people when engaging in Halloween "trick or treating".

On the day that four-foot witches emerge from semi-detached houses around the country, the Commons leader deprecated the actions of a small number of troublemakers.

He said the occasion should not be spoiled for the hundreds of thousands of children seeking sweets and rewards on the nation's doorsteps.

Cook was responding to a call from Liberal Democrat MP Richard Younger-Ross for a Commons statement from the home secretary on the extra police activity needed to cope with trick or treating.

"There is an extra police burden by a number of children going around terrorising older people, throwing eggs, ringing the doorbell," said the Teignbridge MP.

"And also there is an extra risk to young children who are left to wander round the streets by themselves knocking on the doors of strangers."

Cook warned that a trouble-making minority should not be allowed to spoil the evening for everyone else.

"Halloween is an opportunity in which tens of thousands of children - perhaps hundreds of thousand of children - up and down the country will tonight indulge in innocent and friendly behaviour," he said.

"And I would very much deprecate the actions of a very small minority of children who by behaving in an irresponsible and intimidating way bring everybody then under suspicion."

He warned that such ghastly ghouls "make what is a wonderful occasion for our children to enjoy something that becomes an object of suspicion and anxiety in future years".

"I would appeal to all those going out tonight to enjoy themselves to do so, but to do it in a way that those they knock on can enjoy it as well," said the Commons leader.