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 3626 - 3650 of 3727

Per page:

File name	File title	Begins	Ends	Release date
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
PREM19/4196	Greece (UK/Greek relations: internal situation) (Part 2)	Begins: 1987 Apr 3	Ends: 1993 Oct 27	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4576	Bermuda (UK/Bermuda relations: internal situation) (Part 2)	Begins: 1987 Jul 1	Ends: 1994 Oct 6	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4669	Foreign Policy (The British Council) (Part 2)	Begins: 1987 Aug 5	Ends: 1994 Aug 22	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4573	Bahrain (UK/Bahraini relations) (Part 2)	Begins: 1987 Sep 11	Ends: 1993 Dec 19	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4352	Posts and Telecommunication (Pay negotiations in the Post Office and British Telecom (BT): industrial action) (Part 2)	Begins: 1987 Sep 14	Ends: 1993 Aug 17	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4440	Singapore (Relations with UK: visits by Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew; meetings with Prime Minister) (Part 2)	Begins: 1988 Apr 9	Ends: 1993 Dec 2	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4584	Cameroon (UK/Cameroon relations) (Part 2)	Begins: 1988 Apr 11	Ends: 1994 Nov 18	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4731	Home Affairs (The Fire Service: fire safety legislation report) (Part 1)	Begins: 1988 May 10	Ends: 1994 Dec 22	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4532	Civil Service (Introduction of new technology into the Civil Service: Project Gemstone; Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) in government departments) (Part 3)	Begins: 1986 May 16	Ends: 1992 Jul 26	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4386	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meeting with ex members of the Cabinet) (Part 1)	Begins: 1988 Jun 7	Ends: 1993 Sep 21	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4334	New Zealand (Internal situation: UK/New Zealand relations; relations with the European Community) (Part 2)	Begins: 1988 Jul 1	Ends: 1993 Sep 27	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4362	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's international commitments: policy on foreign visitors) (Part 2. With slides and negatives)	Begins: 1988 Sep 8	Ends: 1992 Dec 14	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4585	Cambodia (UK/Cambodian relations: internal situation) (Part 2)	Begins: 1988 Dec 19	Ends: 1994 Oct 31	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4923	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meetings with Jeffrey Sterling to discuss shipping, the UK economy and other issues)	Begins: 1989 Jan 9	Ends: 1994 Jul 13	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4276	Jordan (Visits to London by King Hussein) (Part 5)	Begins: 1989 Mar 5	Ends: 1993 Jan 4	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4366	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meeting with Lord Young) (Part 2)	Begins: 1989 Mar 7	Ends: 1993 Jun 25	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4347	Poland (Visits to the UK by General Jaruzelski, Prime Ministers Tadeusz Mazowiecki and Hanna Suchocka, and President Walesa) (Part 1)	Begins: 1989 Mar 15	Ends: 1993 Mar 4	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4042	Cyprus (Internal situation/relations) (Part 4)	Begins: 1989 Apr 1	Ends: 1993 Feb 28	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4722	Home Affairs (Data protection: computer hacking) (Part 3)	Begins: 1989 Jul 3	Ends: 1994 Dec 20	Date of release: 2019 Feb 6

Per page: