His safest seat yet... 'inventor' Tony Benn, at 83, has found a way to sit wherever he wants

So perhaps it’s only natural that former Labour Minister Tony Benn – who spent nearly half a century as an MP – has invented a chair you can take anywhere.

Since retiring from politics in 2001, he has perfected the ‘frontbencher’ – a rucksack with a built-in seat.

Taking the weight off: Mr Benn waits for a bus on the frontbencher's sister product, the 'backbencher'

The 83-year-old first came up with the idea in 1981 when he was struck down with the rare Guillain-Barre syndrome, which attacked his nervous system and limited his ability to stand for long periods.

Since then he has carried versions of his bag-and-seat contraption around the country while travelling on packed commuter trains, squeezed on to London Underground and even in the mud at Glastonbury Festival.

Mr Benn has now written an article in the current edition of The Oldie magazine appealing for help with manufacturing his invention.

LEFT: Springing into action, Mr Benn prepares to fold out the simple seat.
RIGHT: Ready in seconds, the device is soon unfolded to ease his weary limbs

His frontbencher also has a sister product, the backbencher – which works along similar principles but uses a shopping trolley or suitcase instead of a rucksack.

Mr Benn said: ‘I was carrying around a stool and a rucksack and thought it would better if I put them together. They are very useful for me if I’m waiting for a bus or on the Tube. If there is no free seat I’m still able to sit comfortably. It’s heavenly.

‘After all these years, like any member of the Labour Party, I’m looking for a safe seat. It’s very simple and like all the most sensible ideas it works.

‘I think a manufacturer could get this and find a better way to attach the two. If it was manufactured well it would be very popular. I’m not trying to persuade some millionaire from Dragons’ Den to back it but if a manufacturer offered to give me some royalties I wouldn’t say no.’

On the move: Mr Benn out and about with his 'frontbencher'

Mr Benn offered billionaire tycoon Sir Richard Branson the idea a few years ago, but he received a polite letter of refusal.

Recently, he used his frontbencher on a crowded train back to London from the Warwick Folk Festival.

He said: ‘I’m quite old and people offer me their seats but I say it’s OK because I have my own.’

Mr Benn considers himself to be an improver rather than an inventor. He went through dozens of failed prototypes in the early days, many of which line the hallway of his West London home.

The handy seats are not Mr Benn’s first foray into the world of invention.

He oversaw the construction of Concorde as Harold Wilson’s Minister of Technology and once redesigned a ministerial suitcase to double up as a lectern for speeches.  

He also created a magnetic map so that he and his wife Caroline, who died eight years ago, could plot where they parked their cars in the crowded streets near his home.

Mr Benn, who joined Parliament in 1952, was Labour’s longest-serving MP by the time he stepped down in 2001.

He is considering a return to politics after requesting to be his party’s candidate for Kensington and Chelsea in West London.