POLICE have told the parents of Madeleine McCann they are pursuing TWO vital new leads.

Last week the Home Office confirmed they had provided the Metropolitan Police with another £150,000 to chase a “final line of inquiry”.

Scotland Yard have been applying for funds every six months to continue the inquiry - known as Operation Grange - that has cost £11.75million so far.

In a sit-down meeting last week with the McCanns the Operation Grange team told them they had “two specific and active” lines of inquiry.

A Whitehall source told the Daily Mail: “Metropolitan Police officers had a sit-down meeting with Madeleine's parents to tell them exactly where they were with their inquiries.

“They informed them they had two specific and active leads that still needed to be chased and that although the investigation was taking longer than they initially thought officers said they were confident and hopeful they could get a result.”

A senior Government source added: “Police seeking special grant funding have needed to justify exactly what the money would be spent on, who they are chasing and why.

“They have had to outline their intended work in full detail and careful consideration has been given but we cannot divulge any aspects of that while there is an ongoing operation.”

Madeleine was three when she was last seen while on holiday with her parents in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007.

Former GP Kate and heart doctor Gerry, both 50, from Rothley in Leicestershire, are “very encouraged” the Metropolitan Police could finally be closing in on Maddie’s kidnapper after eleven-and-a-half years.

Family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: “They are very encouraged that the Met Police still believe there is work left to be done in the search for their daughter and they remain incredibly grateful to the Home Office for providing an extra budget for the investigation.

"It is a boost the while family and gives them renewed hope that one day they may finally find out what happened to Madeleine".

Devastated parents of other missing children slammed that decision and questioned why the McCanns were getting “priority treatment”.

Paul Whinham, 69, from Wallsend in North Tyneside, has been searching for his 31-year-old son Michael for three years.

Speaking to the Sun Online he said: “After a six month investigation the Chief Inspector of Northumbria Police told me ‘I’m sorry Paul there’s no more money to keep on going, the case is closed but if you want to declare your son dead it takes six years’.

“If any new evidence comes to light, if there’s any more sightings or anything, I was told to get in touch with them.”

He added: “But then I find out yet another £150,000 is going from the Home Office to the Metropolitan Police to keep Operation Grange going.

“Even police have said there’s no other evidence, there’s nothing that’s come to light in 10 years. Why? Why are they keeping going? Why?

“Why is one family getting all this priority? There are 135,000 missing people in this country.”

In a separate case Karen Downes, 53, said she felt “very angry” other children, including her daughter Charlene, were “simply being forgotten”.

She told the Sun Online: “A child goes missing in the UK every three minutes. What about all those others who never come home again?”

No trace has been found of Charlene, 14, since she was last seen in Blackpool on November 1, 2003 – despite huge publicity and a £100,000 reward.

Last year detectives finally released the only CCTV footage of her on the day she vanished - after it lay unnoticed on police shelves for 13 years.

Two takeaway workers were acquitted of her murder in 2007 after a trial heard her body was chopped up and had "gone into kebabs".

Karen added: If they are going to plough money into the search for Madeleine, then they should do the same for all the children who are missing.

"She didn’t even go missing in this country – it’s really a matter for the Portuguese police, and yet the money just keeps on rolling in for the search.”

Ben Needham’s mum, Kerry, has previously criticised the cash given to the Maddie search, saying it “hurt her”.

Operation Grange has been one of the longest, most high-profile and costly police investigations in history.

Some 600 "persons of interest" have been examined and "sightings" of Madeleine — in Brazil, India, Morocco and Paraguay, on a German plane and in a New Zealand supermarket — assessed.

Previously police confirmed they thought Maddie was snatched by a paedophile gang who may have smuggled her over the border or grabbed during a botched burglary at the holiday complex.

They have also been keen to identify a woman in purple seen hanging around the holiday flat.

The Portuguese investigation of Madeleine's disappearance was criticised by the British authorities as being not fit for purpose.

Scotland Yard began an investigative review into the disappearance in 2011, on the orders of then-Prime Minister David Cameron.

Not one piece of forensic evidence linked to the little girl has been found since she vanished.

And despite trawling through thousands of tip-offs and potential sightings, police have not confirmed that a single one was her.

A Scotland Yard spokesman confirmed: “We have confirmed that Special Grant funding of £150,000 will be provided to the Metropolitan Police Service for the six-month period to 31 March 2019. This is an ongoing police investigation.”