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The mother of missing Ben Needham is “over the moon” after police were granted extra funds to search for her son - but blasted the Government for taking too long.

The Home Office has finally agreed to provide South Yorkshire Police with funding to investigate the case of the Ben who went missing at 21-months-old.

The police had asked for more funds a year ago to help them investigate new leads into his disappearance from the Greek island of Kos in 1991.

They were finally told on Tuesday they would be granted the cash.

Kerry Needham, 43, from Sheffield has spent 23 years searching for her son and described the funding news as “bitter sweet.”

After hearing the news they had won extra funds, she said she is happy they have finally stumped up the cash but furious her family had been “degraded” by the Government.

She feels they have not been given the same support as Madeleine McCann’s family whose little girl vanished from Portugal in 2001.

The McCann investigation was promised eight million pounds after Prime Minister, David Cameron, stepped in personally.

Last night it was unknown how much South Yorkshire Police have been allocated.

Kerry said: “We are still angry that it has taken so long for this funding to come through.

“I have not finished with this Government yet, I will see them in court one day.

“In my opinion as a mother it should not have needed consideration when Matt Fenwick, as a superintendent of South Yorkshire Police, requested funding for a line of inquiry he felt to be extremely important.

“They should have trusted his judgement!

(Image: PA)

“The Home Office and David Cameron personally have said any resources that police require will be given in the search for Madeleine McCann- why is it given to one family why not us?

“I have nothing against the McCann family but why is one family more important than another?

“It’s degrading to us as a family and to South Yorkshire police.”

Kerry believes there are several leads which need to urgently be followed up.

It was believed he might have been accidentally buried by an excavator dumping rubble but no trace of a body was found.

Since then there have been witnesses who have placed a blond blue-eyed boy matching his description in the care of a Greek family.

All eight of them were named in a dossier handed to South Yorkshire Police by the Needham family last year.

Kerry said South Yorkshire police had been “great” but had been ignored after asking for money a year ago in February 2014.

The police team, headed by Detective Superintendent Matt Fenwick, who was in charge of the operation in Kos, is due to start work in April.

Police have said they hope to provide the family of Ben with the answers they “so desperately want”.

Speaking after the Home Office granted funding to assist the search for Ben, Matt Fenwick said: “Ben was a very young child when he went missing 23 years ago.

“His family has endured untold pain and anguish in the years that followed and have never given up in trying to find him.

“South Yorkshire Police has provided support to the Greek authorities wherever requested in assisting with the investigation. “We hope that by continuing to work with them, we can assist in providing the answers Ben’s family so desperately want.

“We will now take time to establish the right investigation team, with a view to the inquiry commencing in April.”

Dr Alan Billings, police commissioner for South Yorkshire, said: “I fully support South Yorkshire Police in their ongoing pursuit of the facts.

(Image: Daily Mirror)

“They have worked hard in facilitating the Greek authorities’ investigation into Ben’s disappearance but there is still more work to do.

“This will be made easier with this additional funding, which will allow further lines of inquiry to be explored.

“Along with the Chief Constable, I remain committed to finding Ben. I’m pleased that the Home Office saw fit to support us in this commitment and have agreed to provide additional funding.”

Reacting to the news Ben’s sister Leighanna, 20, said: “We are all over the moon. They have finally listened.

“It’s better late than never. We are all really giddy and feel, ‘Yes finally, we have broken through.’

“But it is one step at a time and we are trying not to get ahead of ourselves.”

Her brother Ben vanished without trace on July 1991, while being cared for by Kerry’s parents, Eddie and Christine, at their remote farmhouse home.

They had emigrated to Kos and Kerry, working at the time, was visiting with her son.