McCanns’ new plea to public for help in finding Madeleine

They also made a direct appeal to Prime Minister David Cameron for a full independent review of the shelved police investigation into what happened to the little girl.

The couple hope that Mrs McCann’s highly-personal book about Madeleine’s disappearance, which went on sale yesterday, will revive efforts to find their daughter.

Mr McCann, 42, said: “We want people to read the book because it puts what’s happened to us and what we are doing in context.

“But more than anything, we want the public to get behind the search for Madeleine like they did in 2007.”

Madeleine was three when she went missing from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal on May 3, 2007, as her parents dined with friends nearby.

The official Portuguese inquiry into the disappearance was formally shelved in July 2008, although private detectives employed by the McCanns have continued the search.

Launching her book on her daughter’s eighth birthday, Mrs McCann, 43, said people were “understandably shocked” that the authorities had “essentially given up” on the child.

The McCanns, from Rothley, Leicestershire, have written to Mr Cameron asking for an “independent, transparent and comprehensive” review of the case.

In an open letter, they told the Prime Minister: “Thus far there has been no formal review of the material held by the police authorities – which is routine practice in most major unsolved crimes.

“A key piece of the ‘jigsaw’ could easily have been overlooked and not joined up with another. We have tried in vain to get the authorities in the UK and Portugal to play their part.

“But, sadly, our requests have seemingly fallen on deaf ears. It is simply not acceptable that they have, to all intents and purposes, given up on Madeleine.”

Easter Sunday this year marked the point when the couple had spent more time without Madeleine than with her.