clare moriarty, chief executive of citizens advice, thank you so much for coming on political thinkingom their own natural supporters, from tory backbenchers and the tory press for adopting what some describe as labour policies, protecting benefit claimants from inflation, increasing the minimum wage, targeting help with energy bills on the poorest. and yet at the same time, those like clare who speak up for the most disadvantaged, will feel the need to point out that still may not be enough to stop people feeling real pain this winter. thanks for watching. good afternoon. for most, sunny spells and scattered showers but the rain is dragging its heels in north—eastern areas and we�*ve still got a handful of flood warnings out and about. and some of these showers as they come along with their blustery winds could be quite heavy with some hail and rumble of thunder. brightest and driest in eastern areas, orfewest showers, but chilly and cold enough for some of the showers to fall as snow over the tops of the mountains in the north. quieter as we go through this evening and overnight as t

my guest on political thinking this week is clare moriarty.'s the chief executive of citizens advice, one of the largest volunteer organisations in the country. she's no stranger to difficult times because she was the permanent secretary of dexeu, the department that was meant to deliver brexit or exit from the eu. she left thatjob to take up the job she's in now and says that it made her feel like she was coming home. claire moriarty, welcome to political thinking. thank you, it's great to be here. it's very well known, citizens advice, and yet what it actually does is not very well known, is it? so 20—odd thousand volunteers doing what? giving advice to people on a huge range of issues. so we're a federated charity. we have 257 local citizens advice, each of which is their own charity. huge range of different shapes and sizes. the kind of core of citizens advice is that generalist advice. you know, anybody can come along and ask for advice. in reality, a lot of what we deal with is benefits, debt, energy at the moment, in particular housing,