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 3701 - 3725 of 3727

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/2507 Security (Security of the Secret Services: Chapman Pincher's book 'Their Trade is Treachery'; Peter Wright case) (Part 8) Begins: 1987 Jul 2 Ends: 1987 Sep 22 Date of release: 2023 Dec 29
PREM19/2508 Security (Security of the Secret Services: Chapman Pincher's book 'Their Trade is Treachery'; Peter Wright case) (Part 9) Begins: 1987 Sep 23 Ends: 1987 Oct 30 Date of release: 2023 Dec 29
PREM19/2509 Security (Security of the Secret Services: Chapman Pincher's book 'Their Trade is Treachery'; Peter Wright case) (Part 10) Begins: 1987 Nov 2 Ends: 1988 Mar 31 Date of release: 2023 Dec 29
PREM19/2510 Security (Security of the Secret Services: Chapman Pincher's book 'Their Trade is Treachery'; Peter Wright case) (Part 11) Begins: 1988 Apr 7 Ends: 1988 Sep 29 Date of release: 2023 Dec 29
PREM19/2511 Security (Security of the Secret Services: Chapman Pincher's book 'Their Trade is Treachery'; Peter Wright case) (Part 12) Begins: 1988 Oct 5 Ends: 1988 Dec 23 Date of release: 2023 Dec 29
PREM19/3001 Germany (Internal situation in East Germany: policy towards German reunification) (Part 4) Begins: 1990 Apr 2 Ends: 1990 Aug 24 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/1885 Parliament (Boundary Commission reviews of Parliamentary constituencies in UK)(Part 1) Begins: 1981 Feb 19 Ends: 1986 Feb 20 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Any docs withheld? 2
PREM19/1886 Police (Future strategy; policies to combat crime; manpower and pay)(Part 1) Begins: 1983 Jan 24 Ends: 1986 Mar 27 Date of release: 2015 Dec 30
PREM19/1860 National Health (Contraception for the under sixteens) Begins: 1980 Apr 30 Ends: 1986 Feb 27 Date of release: 2015 Dec 30
PREM19/1889 Prime Minister (Prime Minister's weekly diary meeting) Begins: 1979 May 21 Ends: 1986 Jun 30 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Any docs withheld? 1
PREM19/1907 Prime Minister's Gifts (Gifts received by the Prime Minister since taking office) Begins: 1979 Jul 13 Ends: 1985 Nov 5 Date of release: 2015 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 2
PREM19/1891 Prime Minister (Meeting with Dr An Wang, Chairman of Wang Laboratories, 7 October 1983) Begins: 1983 Aug 10 Ends: 1986 Jan 31 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19
PREM19/1892 Prime Minister (Visit to Capenhurst, Springfields, Heysham and Sellafield, November 1985) Begins: 1984 Oct 29 Ends: 1986 Jan 30 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19
PREM19/1893 Prime Minister (Correspondence from Councillor John Holt about threatened closure of Case Tractors, Meltham) Begins: 1985 Jul 1 Ends: 1986 Mar 10 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19
PREM19/1894 Prime Minister (Meeting with Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) and Tom Clarke MP to discuss future of Ravenscraig and Gartcosh steel mills) Begins: 1985 Jul 19 Ends: 1986 Jan 29 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19
PREM19/1895 Prime Minister (Meeting with John Marek MP to discuss proposed closure by Courtaulds of Wrexham dicell acetate yarn manufacturing plant) Begins: 1985 Apr 24 Ends: 1986 Jun 26 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19
PREM19/1896 Prime Minister (Meeting with Sir Geoffrey Finsberg MP about Hampstead Health Authority) Begins: 1986 Mar 15 Ends: 1986 Mar 20 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19
PREM19/1897 Prime Minister (Meeting with members of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee) Begins: 1986 Jul 15 Ends: 1986 Aug 20 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19
PREM19/1899 Prime Minister (Meeting with Terry Lewis MP about Walkden Workshops) Begins: 1986 Aug 18 Ends: 1986 Sep 23 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19
PREM19/1900 Prime Minister (Allegations by Mail on Sunday newspaper of Prime Minister's involvement in share-dealing whilst in office) Begins: 1986 Mar 24 Ends: 1986 May 29 Date of release: 2015 Dec 30
PREM19/1901 Prime Minister (Tam Dalyell's motion on conduct of Prime Minister) Begins: 1986 Jun 4 Ends: 1986 Jun 5 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19
PREM19/1902 Prime Minister (Meeting with Neville Trotter MP about Swan Hunter shipyard) Begins: 1986 Feb 27 Ends: 1986 Mar 18 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19
PREM19/1903 Prime Minister (Meeting with Warren Hawksley MP to discuss procurement of Thyssen TM170 armoured personnel carriers for Berlin) Begins: 1986 Jan 6 Ends: 1986 Feb 4 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19
PREM19/1904 Prime Minister (Meetings with the National Pensioners Conventions, February 1982 to March 1986) (part 1) Begins: 1979 May 30 Ends: 1986 Mar 27 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19
PREM19/1905 Prime Minister (Meetings with David Clark MP and Don Dixon MP about closure of Plessey factory in South Shields) Begins: 1984 Mar 26 Ends: 1986 Jun 9 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19
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