diff --git a/haystack/nodes/prompt/invocation_layer/hugging_face.py b/haystack/nodes/prompt/invocation_layer/hugging_face.py
index 8dc847b90..aaeebc889 100644
--- a/haystack/nodes/prompt/invocation_layer/hugging_face.py
+++ b/haystack/nodes/prompt/invocation_layer/hugging_face.py
@@ -280,7 +280,7 @@ class HFLocalInvocationLayer(PromptModelInvocationLayer):
             # We want to exclude it to be consistent with other invocation layers
             for idx, _ in enumerate(generated_texts):
                 for stop_word in stop_words:
-                    generated_texts[idx] = generated_texts[idx].replace(stop_word, "").strip()
+                    generated_texts[idx] = generated_texts[idx].replace(stop_word, "").rstrip()
         return generated_texts
 
     def _ensure_token_limit(self, prompt: Union[str, List[Dict[str, str]]]) -> Union[str, List[Dict[str, str]]]:
diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/fix-stop-words-strip-issue-22ce51306e7b91e4.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/fix-stop-words-strip-issue-22ce51306e7b91e4.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3dab779ed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/fix-stop-words-strip-issue-22ce51306e7b91e4.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+---
+fixes:
+  - |
+    Ensure the leading whitespace in the generated text is preserved when using `stop_words` in the Hugging Face invocation layer of the PromptNode.