Cameron pledges to reconsider funding decision for inquiry into missing Ben

THE Prime Minister has promised to look again at the decision not to provide extra funds for the police investigation into the disappearance of Sheffield toddler 
Ben Needham more than 20 years ago.

David Cameron told the House of Commons during Prime Minister’s Question Time he would “look very carefully” at a recent letter sent by Ben’s mother Kerry appealing for more help to find her son.

He was responding to a question by Mrs Needham’s MP Angela Smith asking why he turned down an earlier request for help despite agreeing for extra funds for a full-scale Metropolitan Police probe into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

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The Labour MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge asked: “Two years ago the Prime Minister quite rightly agreed that extra resources be made available to assist in the search for Madeleine McCann.

“And yet only months later he turned down a similar request from my constituent, Kerry Needham, whose son Ben is still missing after 22 years. Will the Prime Minister please think again and respond positively to my recent letter to him, by making extra resources available to help a desperate mother search for her son?”

Mr Cameron replied: “Well, this has been an absolutely heartbreaking case that I know the whole country has followed over the years. I will look very carefully at the letter she wrote me. Obviously (it’s) very important the police make these decisions themselves. Government should always stand by to help, which is what happened in the Madeleine McCann case. But I will look at what she says and see what I can do.”

A statement on the family’s website said Ben’s grandfather Eddie Needham welcomed the announcement, but hoped the Government response did not get “swept under the carpet”.

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Ben vanished on July 24, 1991 aged 21 months, after travelling to Kos with his mother and grandparents, Eddie and Christine, who were renovating a farmhouse in the village of Iraklise.

Over the years there have been a number of possible sightings and a range of theories about what may have happened to Ben.

In June the Home Office gave the green light to directly fund a Metropolitan Police investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine in 2007, which resulted in a nationwide appeal aired last month on the BBC’s Crimewatch.