ACTIVISTS chanted “the fight goes on” outside the High Court today after losing a landmark legal battle against state pension age rises for almost four million women.

More than 100 campaigners from Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) gathered outside the Royal Courts of Justice after the legal battle was dismissed by judges.

The case was brought against the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in July by two women who said raising the pension age from 60 to 66 in 2010 discriminated against women born in the 1950s on the grounds of age and sex.

Campaigners also claim that millions of women were not given reasonable time to adjust to the new circumstances, with many only discovering the increase when they requested to sign on for their pensions.

The change has affected 3.8 million women, and gained widespread notoriety after the United Nations committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women ruled that the rise has led to “poverty, homelessness and financial hardship among the affected women.”

Summarising the court’s decision, Lord Justice Irwin and Mrs Justice Whipple said: “The court was saddened by the stories contained in the claimants’ evidence, but the court’s role was limited.

“There was no basis for concluding that the policy choices reflected in the legislation were not open to government. In any event they were approved by Parliament.

“The wider issues raised by the claimants about whether the choices were right or wrong or good or bad were not for the court. They were for members of the public and their elected representatives.”

Michael Mansfield QC, representing the women affected, said: “They have pushed women who were already disadvantaged into the lowest class you can imagine.

“They’re on the brink of survival and I’m not overstating that.

“This group — especially the percentage of the group affected born in 1953 onwards — are increasingly having taken away from them four to six years’ worth of state pension.

“We’re dealing with very serious sums: £37,000-47,000. I think any citizen would be concerned by that withdrawal.”

Waspi supporters outside the court then began shouting that Prime Minister Boris Johnson must intervene, chanting: “The fight goes on.”

An official spokesman for Mr Johnson welcomed the decision, saying: “Today the court recognised the extensive communications that the Department for Work and Pensions made to publicise these changes over many years.

“We are all living longer and we need to raise the age at which we draw the state pension to make it sustainable for now and for future generations.”

Labour shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said she was “disappointed to hear about today’s decision regarding the Waspi women. I will continue to support the Waspi campaign in their fight against pension inequality.”

Shadow education Angela Rayner added: “I’m sorry to hear the women state pension age legal case today has been lost.

“Us girls know our history and none of the women’s rights that have been fought and gained throughout history have ever come easy to us.”