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 251 - 275 of 3727

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/553 Overseas Aid (Renegotiation of Lome Convention; closure of Tate and Lyle refinery in Liverpool; effect on African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) sugar suppliers) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 May 31 Ends: 1981 Feb 27 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 252
PREM19/554 Parliament (Representation of the People Bill; disqualification of prisoners from election to parliament) Begins: 1981 May 14 Ends: 1981 Jul 31 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 31
PREM19/557 Parliament (House of Commons procedure; outstanding recommendations of Select Committee on Procedure; disclosure of documents to Select Committees; review of work of Departmental Select Committees) (Part 4) Begins: 1980 Jun 20 Ends: 1981 Sep 4 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 296
PREM19/563 Prime Minister (Meeting with Northern Group of Labour MPs regarding organisation of regional offices of Departments of Environment and Transport) Begins: 1980 Dec 17 Ends: 1981 Jan 21 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 21
PREM19/564 Prime Minister (Meeting with Gavin Strang MP to discuss redundancies at Bruntons of Musselburgh) Begins: 1981 Feb 16 Ends: 1981 Mar 17 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 14
PREM19/566 Prime Minister (Meeting with David Watkins MP to discuss closure of Consett steelworks) Begins: 1981 Feb 12 Ends: 1981 Mar 13 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 20
PREM19/567 Prime Minister (Meeting with Stephen Ross MP regarding closure of Elliott Turbomachinery Ltd in Cowes) Begins: 1981 Apr 30 Ends: 1981 Jul 3 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 28
PREM19/568 Prime Minister (Meeting with Harry Cowans MP regarding threatened closure of Vickers Ltd Elswick works) Begins: 1981 May 20 Ends: 1981 Jul 1 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 19
PREM19/569 Prime Minister (Meeting with Peter Fry MP to discuss closure of Wellingborough Foundry; UK footwear and clothing industries) Begins: 1981 May 15 Ends: 1981 Dec 14 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 37
PREM19/570 Prime Minister (Meetings with William McKelvey MP to discuss closure of Armitage Shanks and Blackwood Morton and Sons (BMK) factories in Kilmarnock) Begins: 1981 Apr 30 Ends: 1981 Nov 5 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 61
PREM19/571 Prime Minister (Meeting with John Carlisle MP to discuss sporting contacts with South Africa) Begins: 1981 Sep 7 Ends: 1981 Sep 17 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 19
PREM19/572 Prime Minister (Meeting with Dr Walter Marshall, Chairman of UKAEA, Ted Stern of Westinghouse Power Systems and Harry Reinsch, President of Bechtel Power Corporation, to discuss the Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR) programme) Begins: 1981 Sep 10 Ends: 1981 Sep 17 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 14
PREM19/573 Prime Minister (Meeting with Lawrence Cunliffe MP about possible closure of David Brown Tractors Ltd and unemployment in Leigh) Begins: 1981 Oct 28 Ends: 1981 Nov 18 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 26
PREM19/574 Prime Minister (Meeting with Dale Campbell-Savours MP regarding closure of Distington Foundry) Begins: 1981 Feb 9 Ends: 1981 Apr 6 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 198
PREM19/575 Qatar (North West Dome gas field; pipeline problems; role of World Bank) Begins: 1980 Dec 29 Ends: 1981 Jun 25 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 48
PREM19/576 Regional policy (Creation of Enterprise Zones; possible measures to assist Merseyside; Central Policy Review Staff report) (Part 3) Begins: 1980 Jul 4 Ends: 1981 Jun 29 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 309
PREM19/577 Regional policy (Inner city policy: creation of urban development corporations to assist in regeneration of Liverpool and London Docklands) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 Jul 30 Ends: 1981 Aug 7 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 170
PREM19/579 Romania (Visit to UK by Foreign Minister Stefan Andrei, October 1981: meeting with Prime Minister) Begins: 1981 Mar 13 Ends: 1981 Oct 20 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 17
PREM19/580 Romania (Visit to UK by Prime Minister Ilie Verdets of Romania, April 1981: meeting with Prime Minister) Begins: 1980 Apr 1 Ends: 1981 Apr 16 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 121
PREM19/585 Science and technology (Exploiting invention; problems faced by inventors in securing commercial exploitation; Prime Minister's reception for innovators and financiers, January 1981) Begins: 1980 Aug 22 Ends: 1981 Jan 31 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 241
PREM19/593 Security (Leaks about Civil Contingencies Unit (CCU) to Peter Hennessy of 'The Times'; investigation) Begins: 1980 Jul 17 Ends: 1981 Feb 19 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 36
PREM19/596 Social services (Rayner Study on arrangements for paying social security benefits) (Part 2) Begins: 1980 Oct 8 Ends: 1981 May 12 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 76
PREM19/601 USA (Arrangements for Prime Minister's visit to USA, February 1981) (Part 2) Begins: 1981 Feb 25 Ends: 1981 Sep 3 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 152
PREM19/602 Vatican (Possible visit to UK by the Pope in 1982) (Part 1) Begins: 1980 Jun 26 Ends: 1981 Nov 9 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 23 Classification: Confidential Pages: 187
PREM19/603 Venezuela (Visit to UK by Foreign Minister, Dr Zambrano Valesco, June 1981) Begins: 1981 May 8 Ends: 1981 Jun 26 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 26
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