Another prominent UK rabbi has publicly criticised Rabbi Joseph Dweck of the Spanish and Portuguese congregation, saying that “one cannot rely on his rulings”.

Rabbi Shraga Feivel Zimmerman, Senior Rabbi of the Gateshead community, issued a letter written in Hebrew, addressed to his “colleagues and friends, the rabbis of London”.

He said he had listened to many of Rabbi Dweck’s lectures, and described him as possessing “limited knowledge, weak halachic [Jewish law] reasoning skills, and lack of training”.

He also accused Rabbi Dweck of lacking qualities including “fear [of Heaven], modesty, purity, rabbinic training, and scholarly interactions with his colleagues.

“For the above reasons one cannot rely on his rulings and he is not fit to serve”.

Rabbi Dweck has been under fire since giving a lecture in which he said social acceptance of homosexuality had been "a fantastic development for humanity".

Rabbi Aaron Bassous of the Knesset Yehezkel congregation in Golders Green, north-west London was the first rabbi publicly to condemn the comments, followed by rabbinic authorities in Israel and America.

Most Orthodox bodies have not commented publicly on the controversy, however.

A spokesperson for Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said the matter was an internal debate within the Sephardi community.

The series of lectures which Rabbi Dweck had given at the Ner Israel synagogue in Hendon have now all been removed from the S&P synagogue website.

However the S&P community’s board emailed congregants last Thursday, saying it “encouraged members who wish to show their support for Rabbi Dweck on his return from meetings in Israel to attend Shabbat morning service this week at Lauderdale Road”.

Reports indicate that the Lauderdale Road Synagogue was full for Shabbat morning services.