MT's official files as Prime Minister, 1979-90

MT's official files as PM can be read on this site as they are released, in full and free to all - the confidential files originally stored at No.10, the core record of her premiership.

The files have been copied at the British National Archives (TNA) at Kew in London and can be downloaded precisely as they appear in the reading room.

We are doing something more to help people make sense of this mass of information. The files are subject-based, logically enough, but that system makes it difficult to reconstruct the flow of paper across the Prime Minister’s desk at any point in time, depriving us of a sense of context, of the political cross-winds, some of them overwhelming.

To combat this effect we are uploading a large selection of the most important documents from these files – thousands in total - to our powerful site database. You can search and sort by date, subject and other parameters, getting as close as anyone can now get to reconstructing the Prime Minister’s daily "Red Boxes", the rich diet of foreign and domestic policy papers submitted to her by the No.10 Private Office.

List and links to the PM’s files

Below are links to the downloadable files in numerical order. The subject terms are those used in the original filing system.

An average file has around 200 pages.

You can read here an account of how filing worked at No.10, and the system for archiving MT’s Prime Ministerial papers, both of which had their quirks.

Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Private Office files, 1979-1989

1979-89: Chancellor’s Private Office files [links to hundreds of digitised files from the Chancellorships of Sir Geoffrey Howe and Nigel Lawson]

Engagement Diaries

An alternative way through the material is to read MT’s engagement diaries, jumping day to day.

The engagement diaries link directly to relevant documents in the site database, so this is a good way to recover the perspective from the Red Box.

Showing items 3576 - 3600 of 3727

Per page:

File name	File title	Begins	Ends	Release date
PREM19/4390	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meetings with the Chairmen of ICI, Sir Maurice Hodgson, 20 October 1980 and Sir Denys Henderson, 19 June 1991)	Begins: 1980 Oct 2	Ends: 1993 Jan 22	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4455	Spain (Visit by Spanish leader of the Opposition, Felipe Gonzalez and his successor, Jose Maria Aznar) (Part 1)	Begins: 1981 Feb 2	Ends: 1993 May 18	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4442	Social Services (Summary of Health and Personal Social Services Accounts, 1979-1980 and 1980-1981: includes correspondence and the consultation document on the Social Work Services Inspectorate in Scotland, 1993)	Begins: 1981 Mar 13	Ends: 1993 Mar 30	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4460	Sweden (UK/Swedish relations: internal situation) (Part 1)	Begins: 1981 May 12	Ends: 1993 May 7	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4848	Nepal (UK/Nepal relations: internal situation) (Part 1)	Begins: 1981 Jun 19	Ends: 1994 Dec 21	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4682	Gambia (UK/Gambia relations: internal situation) (Part 1)	Begins: 1981 Jul 30	Ends: 1994 Aug 1	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4494	Uruguay (UK/ Uruguay relations: internal situation)	Begins: 1981 Aug 24	Ends: 1993 Jun 28	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4801	North Korea (UK/North Korea relations: internal situation) (Part 1)	Begins: 1981 Aug 27	Ends: 1994 Sep 5	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4492	United Nations (Inauguration of World Food Day, 16 October 1981: includes correspondence on the appointment of the next Director General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation)	Begins: 1981 Aug 28	Ends: 1993 Oct 12	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4418	Royal Family (Prince Charles' interest in youth unemployment: The Prince's Trust; The Prince's Youth Business Trust) (Part 1)	Begins: 1981 Oct 12	Ends: 1993 Apr 30	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4354	Portugal (Visits to UK by Prime Ministers Francisco Balsemao, December 1981 and Anibal Cavaco Silva, March 1988) (Part 1)	Begins: 1981 Nov 6	Ends: 1993 Jan 28	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4443	Social Sevices (White Paper on the Reform of the Industrial Injuries Scheme)	Begins: 1981 Nov 9	Ends: 1993 Mar 29	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4488	Trinidad and Tobago (UK/Trinidad and Tobago relations: internal situation) (Part 1)	Begins: 1981 Nov 13	Ends: 1993 May 27	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4365	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meetings with the Governor of the Bank of England) (Part 1)	Begins: 1982 Jan 8	Ends: 1993 Jun 16	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4409	Qatar (UK/Qatar relations: internal situation) (Part 1)	Begins: 1982 Feb 15	Ends: 1993 Dec 14	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4461	Sweden (Prime Minister's meeting with Carl Bildt, Leader of the Swedish Moderate (Conservative) Party, 17 April 1991: includes correspondence on a cancelled meeting with the previous Party Leader, Ulf Adelsohn)	Begins: 1982 Mar 21	Ends: 1991 Apr 17	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4562	Algeria (UK/Algerian relations: internal situation) (Part 1)	Begins: 1982 Jun 14	Ends: 1994 Aug 16	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4241	India (Prime Minister's visit to India: Indian nuclear programme) (Part 3)	Begins: 1982 Aug 1	Ends: 1993 Feb 28	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4480	Transport (Road freight transport and lorry weights) (Part 2)	Begins: 1982 Oct 4	Ends: 1993 Sep 15	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4463	Togo (UK/Togo relations: internal situation) (Part 1)	Begins: 1983 Jan 7	Ends: 1993 Jun 15	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4481	Transport (Road safety) (Part 1)	Begins: 1983 Apr 28	Ends: 1993 Jul 28	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4043	Czechoslovakia (UK/Czechoslovakia relations: Prime Minister's visit)	Begins: 1983 May 17	Ends: 1993 Jan 4	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4887	Parliament (House of Lords procedure: televising of House of Lords proceedings) (Part 2)	Begins: 1983 Feb 3	Ends: 1994 Dec 23	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4412	Royal Family (40th Anniversary of The Queen's Accession to the Throne: includes 30th Anniversary of The Queen's Coronation)	Begins: 1983 Feb 10	Ends: 1993 Aug 4	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4819	Malawi (UK/Malawi relations: internal situation) (Part 1)	Begins: 1983 May 20	Ends: 1994 May 23	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28

Per page: