A Scottish daily has urged the world to “wake up” and “smell the corruption” in a front page editorial after the release of the Panama Papers.

The Daily Record has attacked the “reprehensible greed” revealed by the leaked confidential documents, which contain details on more than 200,000 offshore companies, their shareholders and directors.

A news report based on the leaked papers, which belonged to Panamian law firm Mossack Fonseca, were published by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung on Sunday.

Among those named in the papers, which show how the company’s clients are able to avoid tax, were David Cameron’s late father and footballer Lionel Messi, as well as 12 current or former heads of state.

In the editorial, carried on yesterday’s front, pictured above, the Record wrote: “We have long suspected many of the world’s super-rich elite are immoral mercenaries cheating the poor for their own gain. The leaking of millions of documents from a secretive Panamanian bank confirms our worst suspicions.

“The rich and powerful are shamelessly milking the system for their own reprehensible greed. Now they have been exposed, it’s time for all of us to wake up and smell the stink of corruption.

“The leaked Mossack Fonseca documents expose the bankers as conjurers who can make taxable funds ‘disappear’. Only the powerful and wealthy beneficiaries knew how the trick was done – until now.

“They robbed the tax from the poor to pay the rich and we all let it happen.We can blame ignorance or a lack of political motivation but now we can see through the illusion, the excuses have run out.

“The dirty practice of offshore accounts may seem far removed from our normal lives as it deals with vast wealth beyond our imagination. But the bottom line is that we are all victims of this greedy few whose offshore accounts were swagbags by another name.”

Several peers and former MPs have also been named in the documents.

The Glasgow-based newspaper’s editorial concludes: “The blindfold has been lifted and this new knowledge is power. We have a voice, we have a vote, we can lobby, we can write, we can take to the streets and we can demand change.

“If these revelations are not enough to shake us from our apathy, what is? Wake up, world.”