A divorced husband who claims that a judge's "unfair discrimination" led to him being refused a fair share of his Jewish ex-wife's £57m fortune has taken his case to the Court of Appeal.

The man, in his 40s, was awarded £5m by a family judge last summer, but is now attacking the payout as "minimalist" at London's Appeal Court.

The award was guided by the old fashioned "expectation" that a man's role is to act as provider and bread-winner for his family, his barrister, Martin Pointer QC, told three top judges. Neither the man nor the woman can be identified for legal reasons.

Claiming the woman would have walked away with far more had it been her ex-husband's fortune, the QC added: "These parties had agreed that neither needed to work, they had agreed that they would share the task, and the joy, of raising their children together.

"The only logical conclusion was that the judge was guilty of unfair discrimination against the husband," said Mr Pointer.

The court heard the couple were married for more than 20 years. Neither of them worked, choosing instead to devote themselves to bringing up their family and living in a "quite modest area of a county adjoining London".