A PUBLIC inquiry will be demanded today into a long-running police anti-corruption probe amid fears the total cost has soared to nearly £5m.

Labour MP Ashok Kumar is set to use a Westminster debate to pile more pressure on the Operation Lancet inquiry into Cleveland Police.

Dr Kumar, MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, will point out that it is two and a half years since zero tolerance pioneer Detective Superintendent Ray Mallon was suspended by the inquiry.

Since then another seven Cleveland officers have been suspended.

"But no charges have yet been levelled at Ray Mallon, and there is as yet no hint of whether there will be any charges," Dr Kumar said last night.

He went on to say the strain on serving officers and their families was becoming intolerable.

In a debate at Westminster, the MP, who has waged a long campaign to get Lancet wound up, will warn that the published Lancet cost of about £2.5m could be a gross underestimate.

"Research done on financial papers presented to the Cleveland Police Authority could be seen as showing that the costs are nearly double that," he said.

Dr Kumar will ask Home Office Minister Charles Clarke to order a public inquiry when Lancet finally finishes to stop "such a farce" reoccurring in a police force.

The MP also raised questions last night as to why West Yorkshire deputy chief constable Lloyd Clarke, now in charge of the inquiry, had returned to his own force.

But a Cleveland Police spokeswoman signalled last night that the Lancet investigations were continuing.

Lloyd Clarke was "leading the inquiry still from West Yorkshire", she said.