Sir Keir Starmer said he would like to see Angela Rayner back in his cabinet and can envisage a comeback for her following her resignation in September.
Ms Rayner stood down from her senior roles in government after failing to pay the right amount of stamp duty on a house in Hove.
The prime minister said that even at the time, he was sure she was “going to be a big voice in the Labour movement”.
He described her as “the best example ever in the United Kingdom of social mobility”, rising from a “challenging childhood” to deputy prime minister.
“I’ve always said I want Angela back,” he said, adding that they remain in regular contact. “I’m friends with Angie and I like Angie a lot and we talk a lot. We still do.”
Ms Rayner remains a backbench MP. Asked about a return to frontline politics earlier this month, she told the Daily Mirror that she had “not gone away”.
Allies of Ms Rayner were subsequently pressed to deny “silly” reports that she was eyeing the top role, assuring she was “focused on representing her local community”, not planning a coup.
Speaking to reporters, the prime minister said that he was “acutely aware” that woman in public roles “get much more abuse and criticism than men”.
He suggested that the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, gets more abuse because she is a woman, as she prepares to deliver the autumn budget on Wednesday.
Ms Reeves had hit out at critics “mansplaining” to her how to be Chancellor and blamed sexism for motivating at least some of the criticism levelled at her ahead of the Budget.
Asked whether he agreed with her, Sir Keir told reporters: “I strongly believe that women in public life get much more criticism and abuse than men, and I mean that is in politics, but it’s also across a number of other areas.
“I’d also say the media frankly … There’s abuse and criticism of all politicians, but I’m acutely aware that women get much more abuse and criticism than men do and I think it’s about time we acknowledge that.”
The Labour leader also pointed to Ms Reeves being the first woman to hold the office of chancellor in its more than 800-year history.
”I’m really proud that we’ve got a female Chancellor who’s doing a really good job,” he said.
Ms Reeves told The Times Magazine this week that she was “sick of people mansplaining how to be Chancellor to me”.
She complained about criticism from “boys who now write newspaper columns”, saying: “I recognise that I’ve got a target on me. You can see that in the media; they’re going for me all the time. It’s exhausting.”
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