When the odd non-domiciled Labour Party donor threatens to leave the country because of Brown and Darling’s taxes it is unfortunate. When a FTSE 100 corporate giant announces it is to re-register its head office outside the UK for tax reasons it is a disaster for UK plc.

According to London’s City A.M. business paper, the £5 billion Shire Pharmaceuticals is going tore-domicile to Ireland. The company will re-register in Jersey and re-domicile in low tax Ireland, joining a growing number of firms who have relocated away from Britain for tax reasons. Insurance brokers Hiscox and Amlin went to Bermuda. Technology groups Electronic Arts and Yahoo! are off to Switzerland. The truth is the UK’s excessive tax burden is driving high value and high tech businesses out of the country.

The TaxPayers’ Alliance’s Matthew Elliott puts it succintly “This disastrous news confirms that Britain’s competitiveness has suffered a series of blows from misguided tax hikes.” Gordon is destroying the ability of the UK to compete globally.

UPDATE : Shire officially confirms story to the London Stock Exchange.

UPDATE II : Don’t know how the Guardian will be reporting this, but they have re-located their property arm to the Caymans to avoid tax.