Detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann will be given more funding for the search, the Home Office has announced.

Operation Grange, which has been investigating the girl’s disappearance since 2011, was granted the extra funds following an application from the Metropolitation police. 

A spokesman said: “The Government remains committed to the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Government funding for the investigation has been agreed every six months, with £154,000 being granted from October last year until the end of March.

More than £11m has been spent so far on the probe to find the missing girl. Madeleine was nearly four when she vanished in May 3, 2007 from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, as her parents dined with friends at a tapas bar nearby.

Her parents Kate and Gerry McCann, of Rothley, Leicestershire, have vowed never to give up hope of finding their daughter.

The couple have often spoken of their bitter regret about leaving her and their then two-year-old twins, Sean and Amelie, alone. 

In 2011 the Met Police launched its own investigation into what had happened to the child.

Last year, Madeleine’s father said criticism of the amount of public money being spent on the search was “unfair.” He added anyone whose child was abducted while on holiday abroad would think it “reasonable” everyone that could be done to find their loved one was being done.

He said: “I think some of that criticism is really quite unfair actually, because I know it’s a single missing child, but there are millions of British tourists that go to the Algarve, year-on-year, and essentially you’ve got a British subject who was the subject of a crime.

“There were other crimes that came to light following Madeleine’s abduction, that involved British tourists, so I think prosecuting it (the investigation) to a reasonable end is what you would expect.”