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 201 - 225 of 3727

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/2556 Transport (British Rail fares: industrial action by the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) and the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF); possible line closures; British Rail finances) Begins: 1986 Oct 9 Ends: 1988 Sep 29 Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/2566 USA (Prime Minister's visit to Washington, July 1987) (Part 1) Begins: 1987 Jun 12 Ends: 1987 Jul 23 Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/2567 USA (Prime Minister's visit to Washington, July 1987) (Part 2) Begins: 1987 Jul 24 Ends: 1987 Nov 30 Date of release: Retained Classification: Temporarily retained by Department
PREM19/2568 USA (UK/USA relations) Begins: 1986 Jun 1 Ends: 1987 Jun 26 Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/2569 USA (Visit to UK by President Reagan, June 1988) Begins: 1984 Jun 1 Ends: 1988 Sep 23 Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/2572 Yemen (Internal situation in the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY): evacuation of British subjects and others) Begins: 1980 Apr 22 Ends: 1988 Oct 18 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2575 Zambia (Internal situation: relations with UK) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 May 8 Ends: 1987 Aug 30 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2577 Prime Minister (Personal correspondence with Princess Margaret) Begins: 1980 Jan 9 Ends: 1980 Feb 7 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2579 Economic Policy (Inquiry into Barlow Clowes Group) Begins: 1988 Jun 13 Ends: 1988 Sep 30 Date of release: Retained Classification: Temporarily retained by Department
PREM19/2597 China (Internal situation in China) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 May 30 Ends: 1989 Jul 21 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2599 Civil Service (Pay and pensions: pay dispute and strike) (Part 17) Begins: 1987 Apr 2 Ends: 1989 Jan 31 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2604 Civil Service (Facilities agreement for non-industrial Civil Service unions) Begins: 1979 Dec 14 Ends: 1989 Oct 17 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2606 Commonwealth (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings (CHOGM), Kuala Lumpur, October 1989) (Part 14) Begins: 1988 Dec 14 Ends: 1989 Oct 12 Date of release: Retained Classification: Temporarily retained by Department
PREM19/2615 Defence (Policing of demonstrations at military bases: activities by anti-nuclear demonstrators) (Part 2) Begins: 1986 Mar 27 Ends: 1989 Mar 16 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2616 Defence (Deployment of Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) in Europe) (Part 5) Begins: 1984 Jul 5 Ends: 1989 Mar 31 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2617 Defence (Deployment of Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) in Europe) (Part 6) Begins: 1989 Apr 3 Ends: 1989 May 28 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2621 Disasters (Disaster at Hillsborough Stadium, Sheffield, 15 April 1989) (Part 2) Begins: 1989 Aug 1 Ends: 1990 Apr 10 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2622 Disasters (Railway accident at Clapham Junction, 12 December 1988) Begins: 1988 Dec 12 Ends: 1989 Nov 7 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2624 Drugs (Drug misuse: international cooperation) (Part 4) Begins: 1987 Jun 25 Ends: 1989 Nov 29 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2628 Economic Policy (The 1989 Budget) (Part 18) Begins: 1988 Apr 5 Ends: 1989 Nov 22 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2629 Economic Policy (International finance: indebtedness of various countries) (Part 7) Begins: 1987 Nov 9 Ends: 1989 May 19 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2636 Economic Policy (Covenanted charitable donations by close companies: taxation of charities; White Paper on Charities) (Part 1) Begins: 1985 Mar 22 Ends: 1989 May 16 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2637 Economic Policy (The coinage. Note: With coins) Begins: 1980 Nov 20 Ends: 1989 Sep 11 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2638 Economic Policy (VAT zero rates: infraction proceedings; European Court of Justice judgment) (Part 1) Begins: 1982 Feb 12 Ends: 1989 Feb 28 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2640 Economic Policy (Vehicle Excise Duty) Begins: 1979 May 14 Ends: 1989 May 2 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
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