Wes Streeting has called for Angela Rayner to return to government just weeks after she resigned for not paying enough tax.
To a huge cheer, the health secretary told the Labour party conference in Liverpool: “We need her back."
He also hit out at Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, labelling him a “con artist” and a “snake oil salesman”.
His praise for Ms Rayner came as he unveiled £500m investment for the first ever “fair pay agreement” for care workers.
He said: “There’s someone else who’s made a real difference too, who understands the struggle care workers face, because she was one. She brought that experience to the cabinet table as the care worker who became our country’s deputy prime minister. Angela Rayner, this achievement is yours. Thank you.
“And we want her back as well.”
As delegates stood to applaud Ms Rayner, he added: “We’ll definitely make sure she sees that. We need her back.”
Ms Rayner resigned after she admitted she did not pay enough stamp duty on the purchase of her £800,000 seaside flat.
The then deputy prime minister insisted she made a mistake based on the advice she received at the time.
But she quit her job as housing secretary and deputy prime minister, as well as her role as deputy leader of the Labour Party.
Last year Ms Rayner said she would “fight every single day” for carers in England to receive the real living wage, as she recalled her own experience as a care worker.
She said she remembered the feeling of people looking down on her during her time working in social care, which she described as a “special job”.
Recalling her time as a care worker for Stockport Council, Ms Rayner said: “I worked day and night on the frontline of our public services. It was tough work, but I loved the people I worked with and the people I cared for. It’s a special job.”
In his speech at the conference, Mr Streeting also attacked Mr Farage as a “con artist”.
“We are in the fight of our lives not just for the NHS or this government, but everything we believe in,” he said.
Nowhere do these conversations come together more starkly than in the NHS, he added.
He accused the Reform UK leader of a vision of the NHS that would “ask for your credit card before your care”.
“That man is a con artist posing as the voice of the people … it’s not reform he is offering, it’s retreat.”
On Tuesday, he warned doctors that Reform UK could “do away with the NHS”, and told the public that they could not trust Farage with their health, after the ex-Ukip leader declined to take a side on whether paracetamol had links to autism.
“Nigel Farage is a snake oil salesman of British politics, and it's time to stop buying what he's selling.”
Streeting also turned on Reform UK’s immigration policies, warning that they seek to remove health workers who had dedicated decades of service to the NHS.
In a defiant message, he said: “Farage says: go home. We say: you are home. I’ve got your back. We’ve got your back.”
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