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 26 - 50 of 3727

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/355 Royal Family (Duke of Windsor’s papers: allegations by Duc de Grantmesnil that they were stolen by secret agents) Begins: 1979 May 10 Ends: 1980 Jun 18 Date of release: Retained Classification: Unknown
PREM19/359 Security (Intelligence liaison) Begins: 1980 Jul 28 Ends: 1980 Aug 4 Date of release: Retained Classification: Unknown
PREM19/361 Security (Case of Miss Lamble) Begins: 1979 Dec 7 Ends: 1980 Jan 4 Date of release: Retained Classification: Unknown
PREM19/363 Security (Policy on interception) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 Jun 7 Ends: 1980 Mar 19 Date of release: Retained Classification: Unknown
PREM19/364 Security (Policy on interception) (Part 2) Begins: 1980 Mar 21 Ends: 1980 Apr 11 Date of release: Retained Classification: Unknown
PREM19/372 Soviet Union (Political and propaganda use made by USSR of Moscow Olympic Games) Begins: 1980 Apr 22 Ends: 1980 Apr 26 Date of release: Retained Classification: Unknown
PREM19/607 Defence (Nuclear release procedures; understandings between the USA and UK on use of nuclear weapons and bases) (Part 2) Begins: 1980 Apr 29 Ends: 1981 Mar 9 Date of release: Retained Classification: Unknown
PREM19/1125 Royal family (Prince of Wales' article, 'Help for Self-Help', for publication in The Economist) Begins: 1983 Mar 11 Ends: 1983 Mar 18 Date of release: Closed until 2024-01-01 Classification: Unknown
PREM19/1618 Royal Family (Broadlands Archives: transfer to Southampton University of papers of Lord Mountbatten) Begins: 1985 Jul 8 Ends: 1985 Sep 24 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 18
PREM19/8 Civil Service (Stock Criticisms) Begins: 1979 Dec 31 Ends: 1979 Dec 31 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 15
PREM19/36 Economic policy (Invisibles in trade figures) Begins: 1979 Sep 6 Ends: 1979 Oct 26 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 67
PREM19/63 Government machinery (Ministerial responsibility for population matters) Begins: 1979 Jun 1 Ends: 1979 Jun 4 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 4
PREM19/64 Government machinery (Judges' expenses) Begins: 1979 Oct 19 Ends: 1979 Oct 30 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 10
PREM19/66 Home affairs (Sale of Isle of Iona) Begins: 1979 May 21 Ends: 1979 Jun 7 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 12
PREM19/74 Industrial policy (Employee stock ownership - correspondence with US Senator) Begins: 1979 Jul 31 Ends: 1979 Sep 3 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 16
PREM19/91 Local government (Remuneration of local councillors) Begins: 1979 Jul 23 Ends: 1979 Nov 19 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 12
PREM19/94 Ministers (Propriety of appointing Minister likely to become MEP) Begins: 1979 May 8 Ends: 1979 May 16 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 12
PREM19/103 Prime Minister (Meeting with British Council of Churches Oct 1979) Begins: 1979 May 9 Ends: 1979 Oct 17 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 41
PREM19/117 Rhodesia (Lord Boyd's Report on April 1979 election) Begins: 1979 May 16 Ends: 1979 May 16 Date of release: 2009 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 74
PREM19/145 Civil Service (Proposal to close Public Record Office research room in Chancery Lane) Begins: 1980 Feb 14 Ends: 1980 Apr 22 Date of release: 2010 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 23
PREM19/192 Economic policy (Demonetisation of old sixpence) Begins: 1980 Jan 25 Ends: 1980 Jan 28 Date of release: 2010 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 6
PREM19/211 Energy (Burgoyne Committee report on offshore safety; transfer of responsibility) Begins: 1980 Mar 27 Ends: 1980 Oct 29 Date of release: 2010 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 24
PREM19/253 Home Affairs (Increase in incidence of leukaemia in Lancashire; correspondence with Stan Thorne MP) Begins: 1979 Oct 4 Ends: 1980 Feb 25 Date of release: 2010 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 69
PREM19/299 National Health (Fluoridation of water supplies; correspondence with Sir Emmanuel Kaye) Begins: 1979 Aug 9 Ends: 1980 Mar 27 Date of release: 2010 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 69
PREM19/315 Nationalised Industries (Correspondence with Alan Newman Ltd about contract for conversion of liner into floating hotel: negative response from Harland and Wolff and British Shipbuilders) Begins: 1980 Jul 2 Ends: 1980 Aug 4 Date of release: 2010 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 14
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