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 351 - 375 of 3727

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/351 Rhodesia (Constitutional Conference, Lancaster House, London, Sept-Dec 1979: proceedings & conference papers, CC (79) 80-105) Begins: 1979 Nov 19 Ends: 1979 Dec 13 Date of release: 2010 Dec 30 Classification: Restricted Pages: 235
PREM19/352 Rhodesia (Constitutional Conference, Lancaster House, London, Sept-Dec 1979: proceedings & conference papers, CC (79) 106-109) Begins: 1979 Dec 15 Ends: 1979 Dec 15 Date of release: 2010 Dec 30 Classification: Restricted Pages: 148
PREM19/353 Rhodesia (Constitutional Conference, Lancaster House, London, Sept-Dec 1979: Report) Begins: 1979 Dec 21 Ends: 1979 Dec 21 Date of release: 2010 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 168
PREM19/354 Royal Family (Visit to France by Prince Charles, July 1980) Begins: 1980 Apr 15 Ends: 1980 Apr 30 Date of release: 2010 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 8
PREM19/355 Royal Family (Duke of Windsor’s papers: allegations by Duc de Grantmesnil that they were stolen by secret agents) Begins: 1979 May 10 Ends: 1980 Jun 18 Date of release: Retained Classification: Unknown
PREM19/356 Security (Leak of documents on defence expenditure to Press Association) Begins: 1980 Oct 23 Ends: 1980 Dec 17 Date of release: 2010 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 84
PREM19/357 Security (Review of adequacy of leaks procedure) Begins: 1980 Jan 4 Ends: 1980 Aug 4 Date of release: 2010 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 57
PREM19/358 Security (Article by Duncan Campbell in New Statesman on US National Security Agency (NSA) activities at Menwith Hill, North Yorkshire) Begins: 1980 Jul 18 Ends: 1980 Jul 28 Date of release: 2010 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 11
PREM19/359 Security (Intelligence liaison) Begins: 1980 Jul 28 Ends: 1980 Aug 4 Date of release: Retained Classification: Unknown
PREM19/360 Security (Alleged connection between Czech Intelligence Service and John Stonehouse) Begins: 1980 Jul 7 Ends: 1980 Oct 6 Date of release: 2010 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 11
PREM19/361 Security (Case of Miss Lamble) Begins: 1979 Dec 7 Ends: 1980 Jan 4 Date of release: Retained Classification: Unknown
PREM19/362 Security (Leak in Guardian and Time Out of Ministerial discussion on civil nuclear power programme) Begins: 1979 Dec 6 Ends: 1980 Mar 24 Date of release: 2010 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 23
PREM19/363 Security (Policy on interception) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 Jun 7 Ends: 1980 Mar 19 Date of release: Retained Classification: Unknown
PREM19/364 Security (Policy on interception) (Part 2) Begins: 1980 Mar 21 Ends: 1980 Apr 11 Date of release: Retained Classification: Unknown
PREM19/365 Social Services (Rayner study on arrangements for paying social security benefits) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 Nov 22 Ends: 1980 Sep 30 Date of release: 2010 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 282
PREM19/366 Social Services (Taxation of short term benefits, supplementary benefits and strikers' benefits; financial treatment of strikers and their families) (Part 2) Begins: 1980 Jan 3 Ends: 1980 Feb 25 Date of release: 2010 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 101
PREM19/367 Social Services (Taxation of short term benefits, supplementary benefits and strikers' benefits; financial treatment of strikers and their families) (Part 3) Begins: 1980 Feb 26 Ends: 1980 Jul 1 Date of release: 2010 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 111
PREM19/368 Social Services (Action on child abuse; death of Lucy Gates) (Part 3) Begins: 1980 Nov 5 Ends: 1980 Dec 31 Date of release: 2010 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 16
PREM19/369 Social Services (Prime Minister’s meeting with representatives of the Community Service Volunteers to discuss youth unemployment) Begins: 1980 Jul 2 Ends: 1980 Nov 11 Date of release: 2010 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 78
PREM19/370 South Africa (Visit to UK by Dr Van Zyl Slabbert, leader of opposition, September 1980: call on Prime Minister) Begins: 1980 Sep 9 Ends: 1980 Oct 1 Date of release: 2010 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 32
PREM19/371 South Africa (Internal situation; relations with UK) Part 1 Begins: 1979 Jun 18 Ends: 1980 Aug 27 Date of release: 2010 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 235
PREM19/372 Soviet Union (Political and propaganda use made by USSR of Moscow Olympic Games) Begins: 1980 Apr 22 Ends: 1980 Apr 26 Date of release: Retained Classification: Unknown
PREM19/373 Spain (EEC fishing licences for Spanish fishermen) Begins: 1980 Jan 28 Ends: 1980 Feb 8 Date of release: 2010 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 18
PREM19/374 Sport (UK participation in Moscow Olympic Games following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan) (Part 1) Begins: 1980 Jan 8 Ends: 1980 Mar 6 Date of release: 2010 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 251
PREM19/375 Sport (UK participation in Moscow Olympic Games following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan) (Part 2) Begins: 1980 Mar 6 Ends: 1980 Apr 30 Date of release: 2010 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 201
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