Archive

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 3701 - 3725 of 3726

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/110 Rhodesia (Situation in) (Part 5) Begins: 1979 Aug 9 Ends: 1979 Aug 30 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 355
PREM19/111 Rhodesia (Situation in) (Part 6) Begins: 1979 Aug 31 Ends: 1979 Sep 11 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 206
PREM19/112 Rhodesia (Situation in) (Part 7) Begins: 1979 Sep 11 Ends: 1979 Oct 10 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 293
PREM19/113 Rhodesia (Situation in) (Part 8) Begins: 1979 Oct 11 Ends: 1979 Oct 31 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 342
PREM19/114 Rhodesia (Situation in) (Part 9) Begins: 1979 Nov 1 Ends: 1979 Nov 18 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 295
PREM19/115 Rhodesia (Situation in) (Part 10) Begins: 1979 Nov 19 Ends: 1979 Nov 30 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 273
PREM19/116 Rhodesia (Situation in) (Part 11) Begins: 1979 Dec 2 Ends: 1979 Dec 21 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 443
PREM19/117 Rhodesia (Lord Boyd's Report on April 1979 election) Begins: 1979 May 16 Ends: 1979 May 16 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 74
PREM19/119 Security (Robin Cook's Bill on the Security Service) Begins: 1979 Nov 29 Ends: 1979 Dec 17 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 17
PREM19/121 Social services (Benefits) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 Jun 19 Ends: 1979 Dec 20 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 158
PREM19/122 South Africa (Plessey Radar contract - poss breach UN embargo) Begins: 1979 Aug 1 Ends: 1979 Sep 10 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 42
PREM19/123 South Korea (Call on MT by South Korean Presidential envoy) Begins: 1979 May 28 Ends: 1979 Jun 28 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 26
PREM19/124 Soviet Union (MT's stopover in Moscow, en route to Tokyo G7 Summit) Begins: 1979 Jun 22 Ends: 1979 Jul 17 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 57
PREM19/125 Transport (Consumers & nationalized transport industries) Begins: 1979 Jun 7 Ends: 1979 Jul 3 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 17
PREM19/126 United States (President Carter's energy policy) Begins: 1979 Jul 6 Ends: 1979 Dec 17 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 70
PREM19/127 United States (MT visit to Washington - policy, December 1979) Begins: 1979 Nov 8 Ends: 1979 Dec 21 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 301
PREM19/128 Vatican (Possible papal visit to Ireland, north & south) Begins: 1979 Jul 10 Ends: 1979 Oct 1 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 67
PREM19/129 Vietnam (Vietnamese boat people) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 May 24 Ends: 1979 Jun 14 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 309
PREM19/130 Vietnam (Vietnamese boat people) (Part 2) Begins: 1979 Jun 15 Ends: 1979 Jul 19 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 304
PREM19/131 Zaire (Call on MT by Foreign Minister of) Begins: 1979 Nov 11 Ends: 1979 Nov 13 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 23
PREM19/133 European policy (European Council, Dublin Nov 1979 - briefing) Begins: 1979 Nov 19 Ends: 1979 Nov 24 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 418
PREM19/1 Archives (Suez 1956 files) Begins: 1980 Feb 21 Ends: 1986 Jun 30 Date of release: 2006 Dec 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 36
PREM19/1763 Germany (Internal situation) (Part 2) Begins: 1982 Oct 1 Ends: 1986 May 30 Date of release: Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Top Secret Pages: 348
PREM19/1764 Germany (Anglo-German relations) (Part 3) Begins: 1984 Oct 1 Ends: 1986 Sep 22 Date of release: Classification: Secret Pages: 306
PREM19/1817 Israel (Internal situation and relations) (Part 1) Begins: 1981 Jan 1 Ends: 1986 Jan 16 Date of release: Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
Per page: