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 3676 - 3700 of 3727

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
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
PREM19/2693 France (Franco-British Council conference, Avignon, November 1984, and subsequent correspondence) Begins: 1983 Jun 27 Ends: 1989 May 18 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2078 Drugs (Drugs misuse: Visit to South America by David Mellor, Minister of State at the Home Office; cooperation between Police and Customs) (Part 3) Begins: 1985 Oct 2 Ends: 1987 May 15 Date of release: 2015 Dec 30
PREM19/2275 Ireland (Prime Minister's visits to Northern Ireland) (Part 4) Begins: 1985 Nov 6 Ends: 1988 Jan 27 Date of release: 2018 Jul 24
PREM19/2146 European Policy (Presidency of European Commission (reappointment of Jacques Delors): UK Commissioners (appointment and meetings with Prime Minister); David Williamson to succeed Emile Noel as Secretary-General; UK representation in official posts in Commission) (Part 3) Begins: 1984 Jan 2 Ends: 1988 Jul 29 Date of release: 2018 Apr 18
PREM19/1914 Prime Minister's Tours Abroad (Prime Minister's visit to Federal Republic of Germany, September 1986: Anglo-German Summit, Bonn, and visit to British Forces Germany; administrative arrangements) Begins: 1986 Jan 20 Ends: 1986 Sep 19 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19
PREM19/2697 Germany (Prime Minister's meetings with Chancellor Helmut Kohl and the Turkish Prime Minister in Germany) (Part 7) Begins: 1987 Jul 1 Ends: 1989 Feb 24 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2698 Germany (Visits to the UK by Governing Mayors of Berlin: Dietrich Stobb, Richard von Weizsacker, Eberhard Diepgen and Walter Momper) Begins: 1979 Mar 2 Ends: 1989 May 4 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2818 Prime Minister's Tours Abroad (Prime Minister's visit to Germany, April 1989: administrative arrangements) Begins: 1989 Feb 24 Ends: 1989 May 3 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2635 Economic Policy (Financial services; Investigation powers under the Companies and Financial Services Acts: disclosure of interests in shares; Tokyo Stock Exchange) (Part 5) Begins: 1987 Jun 15 Ends: 1989 Jan 25 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2915 Brazil (Proposed visit to UK by President of Brazil, General Joao Figueiredo; visit of the President-elect, Fernando Collor de Mello, February 1990) Begins: 1981 Nov 9 Ends: 1990 May 24 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2960 Education (Tuition fees for overseas students) Begins: 1980 Jun 4 Ends: 1990 Aug 2 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/3329 Ex-Prime Ministers (Policy on requests by former Prime Ministers for access to papers from their administration) (Part 1) Begins: 1974 Apr 1 Ends: 1991 Jan 24 Date of release: 2023 Jul 20
PREM19/2788 NATO (NATO Summits) (Part 3) Begins: 1988 Dec 6 Ends: 1989 Jun 9 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20
PREM19/4570 Austria (UK/Austrian relations: internal situation) (Part 2) Begins: 1990 Jun 7 Ends: 1994 Dec 22 Date of release: 2019 Feb 6
PREM19/1735 Elections (Election procedure) Begins: 1986 Sep 2 Ends: 1986 Oct 21 Date of release: 2018 Jul 18
PREM19/1785 Home Affairs (Monopolies and Mergers Commission report on the proposed take-over of House of Fraser by Lonrho) (Part 2) Begins: 1986 Jan 15 Ends: 1986 Dec 18 Date of release: 2054 Jan 1
PREM19/2880 Trade (Britain's international trading policies: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Uruguay Round; export promotion) (Part 6) Begins: 1987 Feb 18 Ends: 1989 Aug 8 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2849 Security (Leak to The Observer relating to Westland plc) Begins: 1985 Dec 24 Ends: 1989 Jun 16 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2583 Aerospace (Westland Helicopters) (Part 7) Begins: 1987 Feb 2 Ends: 1989 Jun 12 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2727 Hong Kong (Future of Hong Kong) (Part 20) Begins: 1987 Oct 2 Ends: 1989 Feb 22 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
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