First elected as a Member of the Riksdag (MP) for Stockholm County in 1982, he stepped down in 1995.
Lindqvist also served as a deputy minister for social security (responsible for family affairs, elderly care and disability) in the Palme II and Carlsson I Cabinet and was later named minister without portfolio with the same responsibilities in the Carlsson II Cabinet.From 1994 to 2002, Bengt Lindqvist served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Disability of the Commission for Social Development.He died at the age of 80 in 2016.