The police probe into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has had its budget slashed by almost £50,000.
The annual grant for the Met’s Operation Grange is now set at £303,000.
The drop of £47,000 is roughly equivalent to the annual salary of one detective inspector and comes as all public budgets face pressure.
But there is no end in sight for the 11-year Maddie probe, which has already cost some £12.5million.
It was launched after Portugese police failed to find out what happened to the three-year-old after she vanished on a family holiday in the Algarve in 2007.
Former Met detective Peter Bleksley tonight said: “Belt tightening is something that has had to happen in all areas of policing in recent years.
“I suspect this is yet another example of that – and that in previous years a lot of the funding has gone on travel and overtime bills.
“I suspect this investigation is now slimmed down to a couple of officers dotting i’s and crossing t’s.”
In March it was incorrectly reported that the Met’s investigation would be wound down by the end of the year.
But Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann, of Rothley, Leics, remain desperate for answers.
German investigators are convinced paedophile Christian Brueckner is responsible for their daughter’s disappearance.
This month, prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said there is no end in sight to the Madeleine case.
But he is preparing to give a TV update on five other cases linked to Brueckner, who is currently in jail for raping a woman aged 72 in Portugal.
Brueckner, 43, denies any wrongdoing and has not been charged with any offence in relation to Madeleine.
Mr Bleksley said: “My concern is this is going to end up being one of the great unsolved crime mysteries.
“I don’t share Wolters’ optimism. I think he should put up or shut up. If you’ve got the evidence, stick him on the sheet, as we used to say.”
