BUNGLING Nicola Bulley police must face an independent inquiry, Priti Patel declared yesterday.
The former Home Secretary called the Lancashire force’s conduct “highly questionable”.
She told The Sun: "The very sad disappearance of Nicola Bully has been a terrible tragedy compounded by the insensitive and in parts highly questionable conduct of Lancashire police.
"Missing persons cases must always be treated with the highest degree of urgency, while supporting the family and working with the local community.
"In this case, and as I have sadly seen in my time as Home Secretary, families have been let down badly by not treating these instances with the urgency required.
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"There are multiple unanswered questions about the handling and investigation that Nicola’s family rightly must have answers too."
The force has referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
The Information Commissioner’s Office is also investigating its disclosure of Nicola’s alcohol and menopause struggles.
No10 last night said further work might be needed after these investigations.
Calls for an independent inquiry were backed by deputy Tory chairman Lee Anderson.
Tory MP Marco Longhi added: "The Bulley family deserve the privacy anybody should come to expect at such traumatic times.
"Most Police forces have not covered themselves in glory in recent times and it’s unfortunate that even Lancashire Police seem to have acted without the best judgement at times in this case.
“The release of such personal information is something I do believe independent investigators should be coming to a view over.”
Meanwhile, TV regulator Ofcom has written to ITV News and Sky News over complaints from Nicola’s family.
Last night No10 opened the door to a future probe - but stressed that they wanted to wait for the existing ones to come back first.
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The PM's spokesperson said: "Our position is to allow the existing process to report back.
"Obviously you would expect after the detail of their findings, we will consider the next steps as appropriate.
"These are long established processes, we would expect the force to be transparent.
"That doesn't preclude further work at the end of this."