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 51 - 75 of 3727

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/1998 USA (Prime Minister's visit to Washington, November 1986) (Part 6) Begins: 1986 Oct 22 Ends: 1986 Nov 17 Date of release: Temporarily retained by department Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/1501 Foreign Policy (Prime Minister's visit to Egypt and Jordan, September 1985: policy and briefing) Begins: 1985 Jul 15 Ends: 1985 Sep 29 Date of release: Temporarily Retained
PREM19/1570 Middle East (Situation in the Middle East) (Part 12) Begins: 1984 Jan 5 Ends: 1985 May 31 Date of release: Temporarily retained
PREM19/1571 Middle East (Situation in the Middle East) (Part 13) Begins: 1985 Jun 2 Ends: 1985 Sep 3 Date of release: Temporarily retained
PREM19/2326 Middle East (Situation in the Middle East) (Part 16) Begins: 1987 Mar 5 Ends: 1987 Sep 30 Date of release: Review 2027 Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2327 Middle East (Situation in the Middle East) (Part 17) Begins: 1987 Oct 2 Ends: 1988 Feb 29 Date of release: Review 2027 Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2328 Middle East (Situation in the Middle East) (Part 18) Begins: 1988 Mar 1 Ends: 1988 Dec 29 Date of release: Review 2027 Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/1738 Energy (Energy policy: nuclear power policy; proposed fast reactor plant at Dounreay; Sizewell Inquiry; fast reactor policy; structure of nuclear industry; international co-operation on fusion; safety in civil nuclear installations and nuclear electricity policy after Chernobyl) (Part 9) Begins: 1984 Dec 6 Ends: 1986 May 31 Date of release: Retained under Section 3.4
PREM19/1633 Security (Soviet funding of National Union of Mineworkers (NUM): information from Sir Bernard Braine MP) Begins: 1984 Oct 10 Ends: 1985 Mar 6 Date of release: Retained under Sec 3:4
PREM19/1636 Security (Leak to press on expulsion of Soviet Embassy officials in April 1985) Begins: 1985 Apr 18 Ends: 1985 Jun 17 Date of release: Retained under Sec 3:4
PREM19/3083 Middle East (Situation in the Middle East: Iraqi invasion of Kuwait) (Part 30) Begins: 1990 Sep 26 Ends: 1990 Oct 8 Date of release: Retained under Sec 3.4 (reconsideration in 2028)
PREM19/3072 Middle East (Arms sales and military assistance to Middle East countries) (Part 4) Begins: 1984 Nov 8 Ends: 1990 Aug 31 Date of release: Retained under Sec 3.4 (reconsideration in 2027)
PREM19/3074 Middle East (Situation in the Middle East: Iraqi invasion of Kuwait) (Part 21) Begins: 1990 Aug 2 Ends: 1990 Aug 6 Date of release: Retained under Sec 3.4 (reconsideration in 2027)
PREM19/3075 Middle East (Situation in the Middle East: Iraqi invasion of Kuwait) (Part 22) Begins: 1990 Aug 7 Ends: 1990 Aug 12 Date of release: Retained under Sec 3.4 (reconsideration in 2027)
PREM19/3078 Middle East (Situation in the Middle East: Iraqi invasion of Kuwait) (Part 25) Begins: 1990 Aug 24 Ends: 1990 Aug 29 Date of release: Retained under Sec 3.4 (reconsideration in 2027)
PREM19/3399 Iraq (Imprisonment of British citizens in Iraq) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 Aug 1 Ends: 1991 Feb 22 Date of release: Retained under Sec 3.4 (reconsideration in 2027)
PREM19/3815 Iraq (Exports to Iraq (Scott Inquiry)) (Part 4) Begins: 1990 Oct 18 Ends: 1992 Nov 19 Date of release: Retained under Sec 3.4 (reconsideration in 2021)
PREM19/3944 Security (The Bloch Affair) Begins: 1989 Jul 25 Ends: 1992 Sep 2 Date of release: Retained Under Sec 3.4
PREM19/3947 Security (Review of the use of vetting) Begins: 1979 Nov 21 Ends: 1992 Sep 17 Date of release: Retained Under Sec 3.4
PREM19/3939 Security (Operational file) Begins: 1990 Mar 15 Ends: 1992 Sep 18 Date of release: Retained Under Sec 3.4
PREM19/3936 Security (Intelligence Agencies (MI5 and MI6): meetings, visits, appointments)(Part 2) Begins: 1989 Feb 14 Ends: 1992 Dec 21 Date of release: Retained Under Sec 3.4
PREM19/3934 Security (Appointment of successors to the Director General of the Secret Intelligence Service and Director General of the Security Service: Prime Minister's visit to the Security Service; Security Service accommodation)(Part 2) Begins: 1990 Jul 1 Ends: 1992 Jul 17 Date of release: Retained Under Sec 3.4
PREM19/3601 Foreign Policy​​​​​​​ (Summary notes on Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) Assessments) (Part 3) Begins: 1988 Jan 8 Ends: 1989 Jul 27 Date of release: Retained Under Sec 3.4
PREM19/3588 USA ​​​​​​​(Visit of William Casey, Director of Central Intelligence in Washington, and his successors)​​​​​​​ Begins: 1981 Feb 12 Ends: 1991 Nov 25 Date of release: Retained Under Sec 3.4
PREM19/3584 United Nations (Visits to UK by UN Secretary-General, Javier Perez de Cuellar) (Part 3) Begins: 1988 Nov 1 Ends: 1991 Jan 30 Date of release: Retained under Sec 3.4
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