"Rip-off rents" are driving more families into poverty, campaigners say.

New figures have revealed a 150% increase in the number of youngsters living in severe poverty in the private rented sector.

There were 50,000 children recorded as falling into this category over the period 2015-16 to 2017-18, Scottish Government data shows, up from 20,000 a decade before.

Households are classed as being in severe poverty if they have less than 50% of the UK median income to live on, after housing costs have been met.

Labour is now proposing a "Mary Barbour law" - legislation named after the campaigner who led rent strikes in Glasgow in 1915 - which would bring new restrictions on costs in the private rented sector.

The party's housing spokeswoman Pauline McNeill said such a law "would give people hope that they can have secure, affordable tenancies".

But she also insisted that more council and housing association homes need to be built to help address the affordable housing shortage.

She said: "The housing crisis is creating acute child poverty across Scotland.

"Too many families are caught in a vicious cycle - a lack of affordable public housing forces people to rent privately and as a result they are paying rip-off rents which hammers their cost of living.

"We need an urgent change of pace - building more homes for social rent and fixing the problems in the private rented sector.

"Building more homes is key, social housing is the best value for money as an investment in the nation's housing stock."

The call came as a survey revealed three-quarters of Scots support the introduction of limits on how much private landlords can charge for rent.

The study by Survation for tenants' union Living Rent also shows almost half of voters would be more likely to support a candidate for election if they back limits on prices, compared to 11% who say they would be less likely to.

Campaigners are now calling for a rental cap, similar to that in place in many European countries.

Gordon Maloney, from Living Rent, said: "These figures should be a wake-up call to the Scottish Government. Rent controls are enormously popular, and it is no surprise - far too many tenants across the country are being forced into poverty by sky-high rents.

"Now we need urgent action. if politicians turn a blind eye to the housing crisis, voters will not forgive them."

Communities Secretary Aileen Campbell said: "Tackling - and ultimately eradicating - child poverty in Scotland is one of our main priorities.

"We do this despite the UK Government's policies that will reduce social security spend in Scotland by £3.7bn by 2020-21, which is pushing people into poverty. We are investing around £125m every year to mitigate the worst of these cuts and support those on low incomes.

"Our target, over the lifetime of this Parliament, is to deliver at least 50,000 affordable homes - 35,000 of which will be for social rent."