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 151 - 175 of 3727

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/2368 Nigeria (Attempted abduction of former Minister Umani Dikko) Begins: 1984 Jul 5 Ends: 1987 Jun 24 Date of release: Retained Classification: Temporarily retained by Department
PREM19/2383 Parliament (Queen's Speeches on prorogation and opening of Parliament: televising proceedings of the House of Commons; establishment of Select Committee) (Part 8) Begins: 1987 Oct 16 Ends: 1988 Nov 29 Date of release: Retained Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2391 Posts and Telecommunications (Future of the Post Office; Sale of the Government's Cable and Wireless shares; British Telecom (BT) and National Girobank) (Part 10) Begins: 1985 Aug 1 Ends: 1987 Sep 18 Date of release: Retained Classification: Temporarily retained by Department
PREM19/2393 Posts and Telecommunications (Study by the Official Group on Telecommunications on withstanding a telecommunications strike; industrial action at British Telecom (BT)) Begins: 1982 Jan 11 Ends: 1987 Mar 3 Date of release: Retained Classification: Temporarily retained by Department
PREM19/2394 Prime Minister (Mark Thatcher and the Omanis: other allegations against Mark Thatcher) Begins: 1984 Jan 1 Ends: 1988 Nov 9 Date of release: Retained Classification: Closed for 40 years
PREM19/2395 Prime Minister (Cementation contract: Mark Thatcher and the Omanis) (Part 1) Begins: 1981 May 4 Ends: 1988 Mar 9 Date of release: Retained Classification: Closed for 65 years
PREM19/2396 Prime Minister (Cementation contract: Mark Thatcher and the Omanis) (Part 2) Begins: 1984 Jan 15 Ends: 1988 Mar 19 Date of release: Retained Classification: Closed for 65 years
PREM19/2397 Prime Minister (Request by Electronic Data Systems to employ Mark Thatcher) Begins: 1987 Feb 1 Ends: 1987 Feb 23 Date of release: Retained Classification: Temporarily retained by Department
PREM19/2399 Prime Minister (Proposal for a Margaret Thatcher Chair of International Relations) Begins: 1987 Oct 12 Ends: 1988 Jun 23 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21
PREM19/2467 Regional Policy (London Docklands Development Corporation: dismissal of John Mills as deputy chairman) Begins: 1985 Jul 18 Ends: 1987 Dec 10 Date of release: Retained Classification: Closed for 51 years
PREM19/2468 Royal Family (Career of the Duke of Kent: possibility of his taking on an unpaid non-executive board appointment in the public sector) Begins: 1979 May 23 Ends: 1987 Apr 9 Date of release: Retained Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2469 Royal Family (Procedures for members of the Royal Family taking up jobs and other commercial appointments) Begins: 1988 Dec 7 Ends: 1988 Dec 7 Date of release: Retained Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2470 Royal Family (Proposals relating to the papers concerning the Abdication of King Edward VIII in 1936) Begins: 1985 Feb 21 Ends: 1988 Mar 24 Date of release: Retained Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2471 Royal Family (Marriage of the Earl of St Andrews, son of the Duke and Duchess of Kent) Begins: 1986 Dec 5 Ends: 1986 Dec 8 Date of release: Retained Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2472 Royal Family (Career of Prince Andrew, Duke of York) Begins: 1979 May 21 Ends: 1987 Oct 30 Date of release: Retained Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2473 Royal Family (The Prince of Wales' Special Projects Unit) Begins: 1987 Jul 29 Ends: 1987 Sep 1 Date of release: Retained Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2474 Royal Family (Visits by the Queen to security services) Begins: 1980 Nov 4 Ends: 1988 Apr 28 Date of release: Retained Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2475 Saudi Arabia (Internal situation: relations with UK) Begins: 1986 May 1 Ends: 1987 Feb 26 Date of release: Retained Classification: Temporarily retained by Department
PREM19/2476 Saudi Arabia (Visits by Crown Prince Abdullah, February 1984 and June 1988) Begins: 1982 Oct 7 Ends: 1988 Jun 21 Date of release: Retained Classification: Temporarily retained by Department
PREM19/2483 Security (Sir Maurice Oldfield: articles in Irish newspapers; Prime Minister's statement in Parliament regarding allegations in Chapman Pincher's book 'Traitors') Begins: 1980 Jan 8 Ends: 1987 Jul 24 Date of release: Retained Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2484 Security (Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ): changes in funding, status and staffing at) (Part 5) Begins: 1986 Apr 17 Ends: 1988 May 27 Date of release: Retained Classification: Temporarily retained by Department
PREM19/2486 Security (Correspondence with Anthony Steven Divall) Begins: 1988 May 31 Ends: 1988 Oct 4 Date of release: Retained Classification: Temporarily retained by Department
PREM19/2487 Security (Correspondence with Gavin Strong MP concerning Archibald and Jane Williams) Begins: 1988 Feb 19 Ends: 1988 Mar 15 Date of release: Retained Classification: Temporarily retained by Department
PREM19/2488 Security (Correspondence with Lieutenant Colonel Robert Butler) Begins: 1983 Apr 15 Ends: 1988 Mar 30 Date of release: Retained Classification: Temporarily retained by Department
PREM19/2489 Security (Distribution of the Prime Minister's diary) Begins: 1981 May 13 Ends: 1988 May 24 Date of release: Retained Classification: Temporarily retained by Department
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