In 1957 he was elected as a Member of Parliament (Swedish: riksdagsledamot)[REF] represented Jönköping County in the directly-elected Second Chamber (Andra kammaren) of the Riksdag.
His protégé and political ally, Bernt Carlsson, who was appointed UN Commissioner for Namibia in July 1987, was killed in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland on 21 December 1988 en route to the UN signing ceremony of the New York Accords the following day.