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 226 - 250 of 3727

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/502 Ireland (Meetings with Lord Brookeborough and Lord Moyola to discuss the security situation in Northern Ireland) Begins: 1980 May 8 Ends: 1981 Feb 23 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 2 Classification: Confidential Pages: 29
PREM19/511 Japan (Visit to UK by Japanese Prime Minister Zenko Suzuki, June 1981: meetings with Prime Minister) Begins: 1981 Apr 6 Ends: 1981 Jul 13 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 119
PREM19/513 Kenya (Visit to UK by Foreign Minister, Dr Robert Ouko, May 1981: call on Prime Minister) Begins: 1981 Apr 21 Ends: 1981 May 22 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 27
PREM19/516 Local government (Relations with central government, organisation & finance) (Part 6) Begins: 1981 Sep 11 Ends: 1981 Oct 30 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 108
PREM19/517 Local government (Relations with central government, organisation & finance) (Part 7) Begins: 1981 Nov 2 Ends: 1981 Dec 1 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 134
PREM19/519 Local government (Possibility of an Accounts Commission for Local Government) Begins: 1979 Oct 31 Ends: 1981 Jun 6 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 23
PREM19/520 Local government (Future of the City Corporation: correspondence with Sir Horace Cutler) Begins: 1981 Mar 26 Ends: 1981 Jun 26 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 25
PREM19/522 Malta (Visits to UK by Dr Edward Fenech Adami, leader of Maltese opposition Nationalist Party, November 1979 and June 1981: meetings with Prime Minister) Begins: 1979 Oct 12 Ends: 1981 Jun 1 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 27
PREM19/523 Manpower (Special employment measures; industrial training; youth unemployment) (Part 2) Begins: 1980 Oct 21 Ends: 1981 Jan 30 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 152
PREM19/524 Manpower (Unemployment and young people; industrial training) (Part 3) Begins: 1981 Feb 3 Ends: 1981 Mar 26 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 57
PREM19/525 Manpower (Unemployment and young people; industrial training; Employment and Training Bill - Enterprise Zones; measures against unemployment) (Part 4) Begins: 1981 Apr 3 Ends: 1981 Jul 10 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 242
PREM19/527 Manpower (Housing policy and labour mobility: National Mobility Scheme) Begins: 1980 Jul 7 Ends: 1981 Jul 23 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 56
PREM19/528 Mexico (Visit to UK by Foreign Minister, Dr Jorge Castadena, March 1981: meeting with Prime Minister) Begins: 1981 Jan 19 Ends: 1981 May 21 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 24
PREM19/534 Middle East (Arab ambassadors' dinner, July 1981: invitation declined by PM as PLO representative would be present) Begins: 1981 Feb 23 Ends: 1981 Jul 10 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 30
PREM19/535 Middle East (Prime Minister's visits to Kuwait and Bahrain, September 1981: meetings with Rulers and Ministers) Begins: 1981 Apr 15 Ends: 1981 Nov 9 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 151
PREM19/536 Ministers (Rules governing travel by Ministers and their families: charging for Royal Air Force aircraft) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 May 4 Ends: 1981 Nov 16 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 196
PREM19/538 National health (Advisory Group on the future of health services and medical education in London) Begins: 1980 Mar 12 Ends: 1981 Feb 2 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 37
PREM19/543 Nationalised industries (Gas and electricity pricing policy; industrial energy pricing) (Part 4) Begins: 1981 Mar 13 Ends: 1981 May 28 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 107
PREM19/544 Nationalised industries (Gas and electricity pricing policy: industrial energy pricing; future of British Gas Corporation's appliance retailing activity) (Part 5) Begins: 1981 Jun 5 Ends: 1981 Oct 12 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 241
PREM19/546 Nationalised industries (Privatisation) (Part 3) Begins: 1980 Oct 16 Ends: 1981 Feb 23 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 146
PREM19/547 Nationalised industries (Privatisation) (Part 4) Begins: 1981 Mar 3 Ends: 1981 Sep 18 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 398
PREM19/548 Nationalised industries (Prospects for the steel industry; the Iron and Steel Bill; British Steel Corporation (BSC) corporate plan) (Part 8) Begins: 1980 Dec 4 Ends: 1981 Feb 16 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 155
PREM19/549 Nationalised industries (Prospects for the steel industry; British Steel Corporation (BSC) corporate plan; overlap between BSC and private sector; rationalisation of the UK engineering steel making facilities) (Part 9) Begins: 1981 Feb 17 Ends: 1981 Apr 6 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 245
PREM19/550 Nationalised industries (Prospects for the steel industry; British Steel Corporation (BSC) corporate plan; overlap between BSC and private sector; assistance to private sector steel firms) (Part 10) Begins: 1981 Apr 7 Ends: 1981 Dec 14 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Confidential Pages: 218
PREM19/551 Nepal (Visits to UK by King Birendra of Nepal, September 1979 and November 1980: calls on the Prime Minister) Begins: 1979 Aug 15 Ends: 1981 Apr 24 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 3 Classification: Confidential Pages: 141
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