Scottish Labour must "accept the result" of the EU referendum, the party's leader has said.

Richard Leonard used his conference address to appeal for party unity after days of public division over Brexit, with his predecessor Kezia Dugdale pledging at a fringe meeting to fight to stop the UK leaving the EU.

Divisions over the party's Brexit policy have centred on Jeremy Corbyn's opposition to single market membership, with a conference bid to overturn the policy effectively blocked by Scottish Labour's ruling executive committee on the eve of the event.

Leonard campaigned for the country to remain in the European Union during the referendum in 2016 but warned delegates as "democratic socialists" they must join him in accepting the will of the people.

"There are still too many countries in the world where there is no freedom of speech, no democracy, where trade unions are banned, where a conference like this would be illegal.

"These freedoms had to be fought for so we should not treat them lightly.

"And so, by the same token if there is a referendum which we have agreed to, on terms and on a franchise, which we have agreed to, then we have to accept the result of that referendum."

He added: "If it comes down to a choice between the sovereignty of the market and the sovereignty of the people I choose the sovereignty of the people every time."

The MSP urged the party to be united as the country "needs a Labour government, it needs Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister."

Leonard also used his speech to unveil more of his policy programme and repeated the party's pledge to return ScotRail to public ownership.

Labour MSPs will launch a bid at Holyrood later this year to enact rent controls to limit rising housing costs, but success will rely on winning support from the SNP.

If passed, the new system would "regulate the private rented sector to ensure that no one is forced to rent a home that pushes them into poverty or falls below the standards needed to protect their physical and mental health and well-being," he said.

Scottish Conservative chief whip Maurice Golden said the conference "has proved Labour are at war with themselves, rendering them incapable of taking on anyone else".

He added: "The farcical splits and amateurish divisions expose a party in crisis."