Lawyers are helping a child sex grooming gang avoid attempts to deport them by obstructing the courts and “weakening the rule of law”, Britain’s most senior immigration judge has warned.

Mr Justice Bernard McCloskey accused taxpayer funded lawyers representing the gang of treating the immigration tribunal, which will decide whether they should be allowed to remain in Britain, with “sustained and marked disrespect”.

The case has raised fears that convicted criminals are adopting a strategy of timewasting and obstructing the courts in an attempt to put off any possible deportation from the UK as long as possible.

The judge said there had been “multiple recent examples of similar conduct and misconduct” and has urged Government legal officials to mount an investigation into such cases.

MPs have accused lawyers of making money by “gaming the system” and using delaying tactics to spin out cases.

The gang from Rochdale are appealing against a decision by then then Home Secretary, Theresa May, to strip them of British citizenship as the first step to deporting them.

The four men, led by ringleader Shabir Ahmed, 63, were convicted in 2012 of preying on girls as young as 13 in Rochdale, plying them with drink and drugs before they were "passed around" for sex.