Three decades ago, newborn baby Lewis Fairman died twice in the back of an ambulance.

As the vehicle whizzed through country lanes in a blur of flashing blue lights, he was repeatedly resuscitated by a paramedic who was barely a year into the job.

When they pulled up at Medway Maritime Hospital, a team of doctors whisked the frail infant away for treatment and that was the last time his lifesaver Richard Palmer ever saw him – until now.

The now-head of Sittingbourne and Sheppey Ukip has finally been reunited with Lewis Fairman 30 years on.

He visited Lewis and his mother Amanda King at her home in the village of Stone, near Dartford.

The reunion came after Mrs King, 52, discovered the politician was living in Newington and contacted him to offer her thanks for bringing her son back from the brink.

She said: "I had thought about him a lot over the years, that I never got a chance to tell him how grateful I was.

"Then, I found out he was still living in the area and with Lewis turning 30 I thought it would be the perfect time for them to meet."

Lewis was asleep at home in Bean when his mother, who had just brought him back from a visit to her sister’s, noticed he was starting to turn blue and his breathing was laboured.

At the exact time in the morning the emergency call centre took Mrs King’s distressed phone call, Mr Palmer and his crewmate Len Kerr were travelling along the A2 from London’s Guy’s and St Thomas’s Hospital.

"The meeting was lovely, Richard was lovely. He remembered it all so well. He and Lewis had tears in their eyes when they parted" - Amanda King

Knowing they would be the closest to the address, the pair radioed in, switched on their lights and raced to the village, where they were met by a frantic mother with her almost lifeless child.

Mr Palmer, 57, said: “We started going to the call before they gave it to us. Had it been a minute later, we would have not been in the position near the turn-off to take it, so we would’ve taken 10 minutes more – in that situation that time is critical.

“Len was driving and I was in the back with Lewis, he needed to be resuscitated twice.”

At hospital, Lewis was treated for symptoms of sudden infant death syndrome before being transferred to Westminster Children’s Hospital and placed in a medically induced coma.

For two weeks, doctors kept him on life-support and Mrs King was told he could die. But on Boxing Day 1985, Lewis woke up.

Lewis has cerebral palsy, blindness in his left eye and learning difficulties as a result of his brain being starved of oxygen, but is living independently in assisted accommodation in Wilmington.

Mrs King added: “The meeting was lovely, Richard was lovely.

“He remembered it all so well.

“He and Lewis had tears in their eyes when they parted.”

Mr Palmer, who worked at Sheppey ambulance station for five years in the 90s, was also touched by the meeting.

He said: “Lewis is a nice young man. I’m glad the circumstances were right on that day 30 years ago.

“I’ve only ever dealt with three babies in emergency situations like that and two of them were fatal.”