A leading immigration solicitor once termed an 'asylum millionaire' by the media has pulled out of publicly funded work because he says cuts to legal aid mean he can no longer represent clients properly.

London-based sole principal Wesley Gryk decided not to renew his contract with the Legal Services Commission (LSC) in light of the withdrawal of legal aid for representing asylum seekers at initial Home Office interviews and the imposition of thresholds during cases.

The firm will now focus on privately funded work.

Mr Gryk said he suspected that the legal aid system was 'being hijacked by the government as another tool in reacting to tabloid hysteria about asylum seekers', and accused the LSC of going along with that approach.

Last year, Wesley Gryk was one of 21 firms named in the press as turning over more than 1 million in legal aid fees from asylum cases.

His firm had maintained a success rate of 80-90% on its legally aided cases, against an overall average for all firms of 20-30%.

Mr Gryk said the firm had in fact only made a 'modest profit', mainly through its privately funded cases, adding that it would not play along with further cuts to public funding as it refused to drop its standards for legally aided clients.

'[The] decision not to renew our contract with the LSC has been a difficult one for all of us but one we have felt that we have no choice but to take,' he said.

The development came in the same week that the constitutional affairs select committee argued that depriving people of legal help in asylum cases was a 'false economy' that would only slow the system down.

The committee also slated 'significant flaws' in initial Home Office decision-making, which meant that setting up a single tier of appeal and abandoning judicial review would be a blow to justice.

LSC immigration services head Crispin Passmore said it was disappointed that such a reputable firm was withdrawing, although he was confident that policy changes would not affect the supplier base or 'prevent high-quality solicitors and advisers from providing clients with a service that stands comparison with private client work'.

Paula Rohan