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 3601 - 3625 of 3727

Per page:

File name	File title	Begins	Ends	Release date
PREM19/4486	Economic Policy (Unitary taxation) (Part 1)	Begins: 1983 Jul 7	Ends: 1993 May 8	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4927	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meetings with Lord Mayors of London, 25 July 1983, 13 May 1992, 2 November 1993) (Part 1)	Begins: 1983 Jul 22	Ends: 1994 Nov 16	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4872	Parliament (Prime Minister's meeting with the Speaker of House of Commons) (Part 1)	Begins: 1983 Nov 14	Ends: 1994 Mar 7	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4869	Panama (UK/Panama relations: internal situation) (Part 1)	Begins: 1983 Nov 15	Ends: 1994 May 13	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4501	USA (Visit of Donald Regan, US Treasury Secretary, on 8 December 1983: includes plan for a visit by his successor, Lloyd Bentsen)	Begins: 1983 Nov 17	Ends: 1993 Feb 4	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4803	Labour Party (The Labour Party's strategy and policy: record of taxation; defence policy)	Begins: 1983 Nov 21	Ends: 1994 Oct 6	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4706	Grenada (UK/Grenada relations: internal situation; includes meetings with the government of Grenada) (Part 3)	Begins: 1984 Jan 3	Ends: 1994 Oct 17	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4477	Transport (East London river crossing)	Begins: 1984 May 1	Ends: 1993 Jul 7	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4734	Home Afffairs (Homosexual rights in Great Britain and Europe) (Part 1)	Begins: 1984 May 21	Ends: 1994 Dec 15	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4628	Energy (Gas and electricity) (Part 1)	Begins: 1984 Aug 6	Ends: 1994 Jun 5	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4676	Foreign Poicy (United Nations Law of the Sea Convention) (UNLOSC) (Part 3)	Begins: 1985 Jan 21	Ends: 1994 Jul 12	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4617	Disasters (Whitehall responses to national disasters: inquiries into major incidents) (Part 1)	Begins: 1985 Jun 24	Ends: 1994 Dec 22	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4197	Guatemala (Internal situation/relations) (Part 1)	Begins: 1985 Oct 27	Ends: 1993 Jun 14	Date of release: 2018 Sep 6
PREM19/4799	Kiribati (UK/Kiribati relations: internal situation; visits by Ieremia Tabai and Teatao Teannaki)	Begins: 1985 Nov 20	Ends: 1994 May 10	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4928	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meeting with Admiral Lee Baggett Jnr, SACLANT (Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic), 13 March 1986: includes correspondence regarding a telephone call between the PM and General John Galvin, US Army Supreme Commander Allied Powers Europe, 3 February 1992)	Begins: 1986 Jan 30	Ends: 1992 Jan 16	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4333	New Zealand (Visits to the UK by New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange and his successor Jim Bolger) (Part 2)	Begins: 1986 Feb 6	Ends: 1993 Mar 11	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4707	Haiti (UK/Haiti relations: internal situation) (Part 1)	Begins: 1986 Feb 7	Ends: 1994 Aug 31	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4588	Chile (UK/Chilean relations: internal situation; policy on arms sales) (Part 2)	Begins: 1986 Mar 13	Ends: 1994 May 25	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4435	Science and Technology (Intellectual property and innovation: problems faced by private inventors; Intellectual Property Bill) (Part 34)	Begins: 1986 Apr 2	Ends: 1993 Dec 22	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4621	Downing Street (Information technology) (Part 4)	Begins: 1986 Jul 18	Ends: 1994 Nov 8	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4828	Mexico (Anglo-Mexican relations: internal situation in Mexico) (Part 2)	Begins: 1986 Aug 25	Ends: 1994 Dec 5	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4847	Nauru (Internal situation: Nauru/UK relations) (Part 1)	Begins: 1986 Sep 26	Ends: 1994 Jan 12	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4353	Portugal (UK/Portugal relations) (Part 2)	Begins: 1986 Nov 14	Ends: 1993 Dec 16	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4518	Zimbabwe (Internal situation: UK/Zimbabwe relations; Prime Minister's meetings with Mr Mugabe) (Part 5)	Begins: 1987 Mar 24	Ends: 1993 Sep 28	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4458	Sport (Britain's sporting achievements: review of sport 1987-1988: review of sports policy)	Begins: 1987 Feb 11	Ends: 1993 Jul 9	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28

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