EQUALITY campaigners warned yesterday that black and Asian women are paying the highest price for Tory austerity and accused the government of repeatedly failing to carry out policy impact assessments.

New research commissioned by the Women’s Budget Group and racial equality think tank the Runnymede Trust shows that the poorest people are set to lose the most from tax and benefit changes by 2020.

However, the first research of its kind into the impact of Budgets and Autumn Statements on minority groups found that, in every income group, black and minority ethnic (BME) women will lose the greatest proportion of their income.