JEREMY CORBYN started April campaigning for better, council-owned bus services. It confused some Londonbased people who don’t understand how important — and how bad — buses are outside the capital.

But buses matter. The big sign that they matter so much is that one of the Tories’ former transport ministers, Stephen Hammond, has a second income working for the private bus firms opposing Corbyn’s campaign.

While Labour’s leader works for better publicly managed bus services, the Tory former minister works for the private firms who want to stop things getting better.

Corbyn’s policy — which is part of Labour’s upcoming mayoral and council elections campaign — is for local councils to be given control of buses.

There around five billion UK bus journeys a year, compared to 1.7 billion train journeys, but the latter get a lot more press because train passengers are more likely to be better off — and to include journalists and policy-makers.

There is a second trick. In London, buses are run by the public authority Transport for London and the regulated service is quite good. Since 1986 buses in the rest of Britain have been deregulated. The five big bus firms run services they choose. Passenger journeys have plummeted but critics point out the firms still make big profits.

Councils that want extra services in isolated areas must pay subsidies.

The journalists and policy-makers in London think buses aren’t bad — but the rest of the nation knows different.

After bus company lobbying, attempts to have London-style reregulated services have been rejected, most recently in the quashed bid for a north-east regulated bus region.

Current Transport Minister Andrew Jones is pushing a Bus Services Bill which will stop councils taking control of buses.

Currently 10 councils — like Reading and Nottingham — run their own bus companies, often with very good results.

However, the government says its new Bill “will give councils new powers to work in partnership with companies.” The key words being “in partnership,” meaning they must give the actual job of running buses to private firms.

The Bus Services Bill also limits which councils can franchise bus services without getting approval from the government.

This is a live argument — amendments from the House of Lords gave councils the power to run franchises without going to the national government, but Jones said he would reject these progressive amendments.

All told, the government wants councils to have less power over buses and private bus firms to have more, even though this deregulated service leaves non-Londoners with grim, reduced services.

Where private firms do well out of bad public services, you often find money going into politicians’ hands.

In this case, since last January, Wimbledon MP and former transport minister Stephen Hammond has a part-time job with the private bus lobby.

Hammond has become a paid advisor to the Confederation of Passenger Transport, which represents the private bus firms.

Hammond’s job involves “providing political advice on the background of the UK political scene and specific advice on likely transport and infrastructure policy.”

The Confederation of Passenger Transport is the main lobbying group for the bus companies.

Its members include the big firms like Arriva and FirstGroup and it is “recognised by government as the voice of the bus and coach industry.”

Hammond says his job is “ad hoc,” but since March 2016, they have paid him £15,500 — a handy subsidy to his MP’s salary.

It’s not the most glamorous example of the revolving door — other former ministers get to work for international energy, defence or finance firms — but this is one more example of what David Cameron called the “ex-ministers for hire,” a “scandal” of “crony capitalism.”

• You can chat with Solomon on Twitter at @SolHughesWriter.