People in Hull have spoken out after Michelle Dewberry’s controversial comments regarding the search for Madeleine McCann.

The Hull businesswoman hit out at plans for hundreds of thousands of pounds in Government cash to be ploughed into the search, saying "if the family was from Hull they would not get the fraction of the cash".

The former Apprentice winner spoke on the Sky News debate show The Pledge standing by the notion that the continued stream of Home Office funding was “according to class”.

She said: “If this was a family from Hull who had gone to a caravan park down the road and left their kids in the caravan, while they’d gone to the local boozer, this wouldn’t be getting millions of pounds worth of attention and funding, and all the rest of it.”

After the show, Ms Dewberry followed up on her position on social media by saying, “As sad as it is the search for Madeleine McCann has not returned any results, I feel strongly that if this were a working class family whose child went missing when they left them at home & headed to the pub...There wouldn’t haven’t been a fraction of the money spent on the search."

Needless to say her comments fuelled the debate further on social media, with hundreds of people in Hull voicing their own opinion.

A majority of Hull Live readers agreed with what she had to say, with one person commenting: “Well said Michelle you’re absolutely spot on.”

Another added: “Not her biggest fan but she’s absolutely bang on here.”

One person said: “Good for you and well said.”

But her comments did not win everyone over, with one person stating that it was ‘irrelevant’ as to where Maddie was from.

They said: “I think it’s irrelevant where she’s from or how affluent her parents are. A little girl went missing and it’s good that money is being thrown at it to find her.

“Too many people focus on the parents, as if because it is their fault she went missing, they don’t deserve help.

“It isn’t helping them, it’s helping towards finding a little girl who has been abducted by no fault of her own.”

Operation Grange, the Met Police investigation into Maddie’s disappearance, was set up in 2013 by then Prime Minister David Cameron after the Portuguese inquiry failed to provide answers.

To keep the British investigation afloat, the force have had to apply for home office funding on a number of occasions, with their latest successful attempt allowing the search to continue until March 2020.

Readers pointed out that there are other missing person cases out there that have not received the same amount of funding to continue searches.

One person commented: “As much as I love Maddie to be found as millions of others…why just this case?

“It’s not fair on the hundreds of other missing children…! So wrong.”

Another added: “Enough cash has been spent. Spend on other children missing.”

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