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 3651 - 3675 of 3727

Per page:

File name	File title	Begins	Ends	Release date
PREM19/4625	El Salvador (Internal situation: UK/El Salvador relations) (Part 2)	Begins: 1990 Feb 15	Ends: 1994 Apr 29	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4452	South Africa (Visits of South African President, FW de Klerk) (Part 2)	Begins: 1990 Feb 28	Ends: 1993 Sep 30	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4464	Trade and Industry (Government purchasing policy and Buy British policy) (Part 6)	Begins: 1990 Mar 15	Ends: 1993 Mar 8	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4162	Germany (Internal situation in the Federal Republic of Germany) (Part 4)	Begins: 1990 Apr 1	Ends: 1993 Feb 28	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4329	NATO (NATO policy) (Part 2)	Begins: 1990 Apr 10	Ends: 1993 Oct 12	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4495	USA (United States foreign policy: USA/European relations) (Part 4)	Begins: 1990 Apr 25	Ends: 1993 May 24	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4227	Hong Kong (Future of the Governor of Hong Kong) (Part 1)	Begins: 1990 May 1	Ends: 1993 Feb 2	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4332	NATO (NATO Ministerial meetings) (Part 2)	Begins: 1990 Jun 1	Ends: 1993 Jun 10	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4634	Environmental Affairs (Contacts with Sir Crispin Tickell, environmental adviser) (Part 1)	Begins: 1990 Jun 27	Ends: 1994 Nov 9	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4233	Hungary (UK/Hungarian relations: internal situation) (Part 4)	Begins: 1990 Jul 1	Ends: 1993 Jun 21	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4349	Police (Police policy) (Part 4)	Begins: 1990 Jul 2	Ends: 1993 Jan 20	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4400	Prime Minister's Tours Abroad (Prime Minister's visit to World Economic Forum in Davos, 28 January-1 February 1992: includes correspondence on the 1990 annual meeting)	Begins: 1990 Sep 10	Ends: 1993 Oct 8	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4299	Middle East (Arms sales and military assistance to Middle East countries) (Part 5)	Begins: 1990 Nov 1	Ends: 1993 Feb 25	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4449	Social Services (Uprating of social security benefits) (Part 7)	Begins: 1990 Nov 1	Ends: 1993 Feb 25	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/1997	USA (Visits to UK by Vice President George Bush; discussions on extraterritoriality and terrorism)	Begins: 1981 Jun 11	Ends: 1985 Jul 3	Date of release: Temporarily retained by department
PREM19/1999	USA (UK/USA relations) (Part 4)	Begins: 1985 Jun 3	Ends: 1986 May 31	Date of release: Temporarily retained by department
PREM19/2000	USA (US foreign policy: US/European relations) (Part 2)	Begins: 1984 Jan 3	Ends: 1986 Dec 30	Date of release: Temporarily retained by department
PREM19/2001	USA (Visits to UK by US Defense Secretary, Caspar Weinberger: meetings with the Prime Minister) (Part 1)	Begins: 1981 Dec 8	Ends: 1986 Dec 9	Date of release: Temporarily retained by department
PREM19/1974	Soviet Union (Soviet tank developments) (Part 1)	Begins: 1979 Aug 1	Ends: 1986 Apr 11	Date of release: Temporarily retained by Department
PREM19/1975	Soviet Union (UK/Soviet relations: defection of Oleg Gordievsky) (Part 5)	Begins: 1985 Nov 1	Ends: 1986 May 30	Date of release: Temporarily retained by Department
PREM19/4948	Former Prime Ministers (Sir Winston Churchill's wartime diary) (Part 1)	Begins: 1979 Dec 1	Ends: 1994 Apr 18	Date of release: 2020 Dec 30
PREM19/3869	Oman (Internal situation: UK/Oman relations) (Part 3)	Begins: 1989 Feb 1	Ends: 1992 Oct 27	Date of release: Reconsideration 2028
PREM19/1633	Security (Soviet funding of National Union of Mineworkers (NUM): information from Sir Bernard Braine MP)	Begins: 1984 Oct 10	Ends: 1985 Mar 6	Date of release: Retained under Sec 3:4
PREM19/1636	Security (Leak to press on expulsion of Soviet Embassy officials in April 1985)	Begins: 1985 Apr 18	Ends: 1985 Jun 17	Date of release: Retained under Sec 3:4
PREM19/2183	France (Visits to UK by Raymond Barre, December 1981, April 1983, January 1986 and March 1987)	Begins: 1980 Dec 1	Ends: 1987 Mar 25	Date of release: 2016 Feb 19

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