In what would be a devastating blow to the capital’s future as a finance powerhouse, Mr Johnson predicted that up to 9,000 more top City executives workers will leave London following the government’s announcement of a 50 per cent tax on all bonuses of over £25,000 this year, which will come on top of April’s new 50 per cent tax on incomes above £150,000. He said “numerous” bankers - including some employing 1,600 people - had warned him privately that they might relocate altogether, rather than face tax raids to plug the holes in public finances.  Off all the tax-friendly bolt holes that they might choose, Switzerland is the most likely. It is less crowded than Monaco, has a better climate than the Isle of Man and, with flights from London almost hourly to Zurich’s vast, shiny airport, is much handier than Hong Kong or Dubai. While Britain’s politicians compete to bash bankers, here they compete to woo them - each of Switzerland’s 27 self-governing cantons sets its own tax rate, many with ultra-low levels to attract foreign finance firms and workers.  Few places have been more successful at this than Zug, a quiet lakeside canton just outside Zurich where Quantum is among some 27,000 registered firms, more than one for every head of population. Many are finance houses whose presence is indicated by nothing more than a discreet plaque in a stairwell, although the Ferrari garages and advertisements in estate agents’ windows hint at the wealth that is around. One British-owned property for sale, described as a “villa a la James Bond”, is going for 25 million Swiss francs (£15 million).  The Zug authorities say there are now some 1,200 Britons working in the Canton, and more are expected. “We have two very high net worth individuals who are looking to move to Zug at the moment, both seeking homes in the region of 15-27 million Swiss francs (£10-16 million),” said Andrew Langton, of London estate agents Aylesford International. “They are getting out in April, and tax is 100 per cent the reason.”  True, for any City young gun looking to to fritter his lightly-taxed bonuses away, Zug is not the most exciting place in the word. The main business district looks like a posher, cleaner version of Milton Keynes, and while there is no shortage of classical music concerts - the Borodin quartet, a top-end Russian string outfit, were on the billboards last week - Zug’s authorities prefer that more raucous nightlife be confined to nearby Zurich.  But there is swimming and boating in the lake, skiing in the nearby mountains, and if the weekends get too boring, Italy is only three hours’ drive away. Plus there is Pickwick’s, a £4-a-pint British expat boozer described by regular David Perry as “a working man’s pub for people with lots of money.”  “Zug is slightly the arse end of nowhere, yes,” said Mr Perry, a trader for a hedge fund who moved here from Essex in 2008. “But I love it. The trains run on time, and in the summer the weather is beautiful. The only thing I miss really is family and beers with my friends back home.”  True, a certain amount of Square Miles-style hi-jinks does go on here. Pub tales that The Sunday Telegraph heard in the Pickwick include the trader who paid a woman 1,000 Euros to pour a drink over his friend’s head one night, and the various hedge fund billionaires who put rare “Black” credit cards behind the bar. There is also a broker who got jailed for drink driving, yet was allowed out on day release so he could to continue earning millions for his hedge fund.  The real sign of the burgeoning British presence, however, is not in champagne or Ferrari sales, but in places like Eric Braun’s London shop, which sells delicacies that Britons - and probably only Britons - hanker after. His wares include Mr Fielding’s much-missed Marmite, Walkers Crisps, bacon, Branston Pickle and Alpen - which, despite being a “Swiss-style breakfast cereal”, is not generally eaten in Switzerland.  “HP sauce is the most popular item - people get really angry if I run out of stock,” said Mr Braun, who admits that not all of his well-heeled customers have particularly sophisticated habits. One man worth $500 million comes in to buy Heinz spaghetti hoops, while another recently demanded that he source 90 packets of Twiglets for a fortnight’s holiday.  Slightly more upmarket British tastes are catered for at Frankey’s deli in the old town, which opened in June and sells organic British cheese to British financiers. “They like it for entertaining their clients with - it makes a difference to the Swiss stuff,” said proprietor Frank Gendolla-Green, who likes to think that at some point, a chunk of Stinking Bishop or Lincolnshire Poacher has clinched a $500 million business deal.  The British Government is sceptical about Mr Johnson’s claims, gambling that someone who can afford to live in West Kensington - as Mr Fielding did - may not really worry about a few million here or there. Yet the money, Mr Fielding says, isn’t really the point. What really irks him is the failure of the government he subsidises so generously to make Britain a safer, pleasanter place to live.  “I don’t use the NHS and I educate my children privately, but I do use public transport and going home to West Kensington any time after 8pm night it felt like the Wild West, with people behaving anti-socially,” he said. “I’m the kind of person who likes to speak up if there is trouble, but I realised after a few incidents that I’d end up in some serious run-in.  “I don’t mind paying tax, even fairly high tax, as long as that is well spent, but I’m afraid I didn’t get that impression with Gordon Brown’s policies.”  His partner Anne, 38, a derivatives and securitisation specialist who is currently looking after their children Felix, aged six months, and Emilie, two, is similarly happy. The Swiss, a conservative nation, generally expect mothers to look after their own children, so finding childcare may be hard, and compared to the City it may not be easy for her to find a new job. But she added: “While I like the urban buzz of London, there are advantages here.  “There is a forest that starts at the end of our road where the children can play, and you see five year olds walking to school on their own.”  Indeed, if anything, the only problem for new British arrivals is that Switzerland can be a little too picture postcard perfect. Not only is jay-walking an arrestable offence, but by-laws in many cantons forbid people from performing late night ablutions in case it disturbs neighbours. “A guy in our office was having a shave one night so that he would be smart for a business meeting the next day,” said Mr Fielding. “He was told by his concierge his shaver was making a noise, and that he would be kicked out if he did it again.”
British bankers alarmed at rising tax rates in the City of London find they   can have a good life in Switzerland - and there are even spaghetti hoops.