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 3601 - 3625 of 3727

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/3417 Kenya (UK/Kenya relations: internal situation) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 Jun 8 Ends: 1991 Oct 28 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Any docs withheld? 8 Classification: Secret Pages: 292
PREM19/3307 Ethiopia (Internal situation: relations with UK) (Part 1) Begins: 1982 Dec 1 Ends: 1991 Oct 31 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Any docs withheld? 8 Classification: Secret Pages: 245
PREM19/3244 Commonwealth (Meetings with the Commonwealth Secretary-General) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 May 24 Ends: 1991 Aug 28 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Any docs withheld? 8 Classification: Secret Pages: 281
PREM19/3210 USA (UK/USA relations) (Part 7) Begins: 1989 May 2 Ends: 1990 Aug 31 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Any docs withheld? 8 Classification: Secret Pages: 323
PREM19/3138 Prime Minister's Tours Abroad (Prime Minister's visit to Helsinki, August 1990: administrative arrangements) Begins: 1990 Mar 1 Ends: 1990 Oct 2 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Any docs withheld? 8 Classification: Confidential Pages: 122
PREM19/3106 Parliament (Appointment of Parliamentary Private Secretaries) (Part 3) Begins: 1986 Jun 10 Ends: 1990 Dec 31 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Any docs withheld? 8 Classification: Confidential Pages: 430
PREM19/3091 Mozambique (Internal situation: aid programme; relations with the UK) Begins: 1979 Aug 2 Ends: 1990 Mar 23 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Any docs withheld? 8 Classification: Top Secret - Cab One Pages: 360
PREM19/2369 Nigeria (Prime Minister's visit to Nigeria, January 1988) Begins: 1987 Dec 10 Ends: 1988 Apr 20 Date of release: 2018 Dec 28 Any docs withheld? 8 Classification: Secret Pages: 131
PREM19/2868 Soviet Union (Visit to the UK by President Mikhail Gorbachev, April 1989) (Part 3) Begins: 1989 Jan 3 Ends: 1989 Mar 31 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 8 Classification: Secret Pages: 492
PREM19/2531 Soviet Union (Policy towards the Soviet Union: calls on Prime Minister by Robert Conquest; organisation of a seminar on Soviet intentions; Soviet and East European studies) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 Aug 1 Ends: 1987 Sep 8 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Any docs withheld? 8 Classification: Top Secret Pages: 201
PREM19/2049 Commonwealth (Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting on South Africa in London, August 1986) Begins: 1986 Jul 4 Ends: 1987 Jan 13 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 8 Classification: Top Secret - Cab One Pages: 178
PREM19/4454 South Africa (Visits to the UK by Nelson Mandela) Begins: 1990 Mar 5 Ends: 1993 Oct 15 Date of release: 2018 Dec 28 Any docs withheld? 8 Classification: Secret - Cab One Pages: 243
PREM19/1673 Argentina (Falklands: sensitive briefing - defence after repossession) (Part 14) Begins: 1984 Feb 21 Ends: 1986 Jun 26 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 8 Classification: Secret - UK Eyes A Pages: 190
PREM19/2017 Argentina (Falklands) (Part 42) Begins: 1987 Sep 7 Ends: 1988 Dec 29 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 8 Classification: Secret - UK Eyes A Pages: 229
PREM19/2682 Foreign Policy (East/West relations) (Part 9) Begins: 1988 Dec 2 Ends: 1989 Nov 17 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Any docs withheld? 8 Classification: Secret Pages: 347
PREM19/3099 Nationalised Industries (Gas and electricity pricing policy: privatisation of the electricity supply industry) (Part 19) Begins: 1990 May 1 Ends: 1990 Nov 15 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 8 Classification: Secret Pages: 260
PREM19/3132 Prime Minister's Tours Abroad (Prime Minister's visit to Switzerland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, September 1990: administrative arrangements) Begins: 1989 Dec 1 Ends: 1990 Oct 18 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 8 Classification: Confidential Pages: 370
PREM19/3135 Prime Minister's Tours Abroad (Extraordinary European Council meeting in Rome, October 1990: administrative arrangements) Begins: 1990 Sep 27 Ends: 1990 Oct 29 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 8 Classification: Confidential Pages: 38
PREM19/3176 Soviet Union (Prime Minister's visit to the Soviet Union, June 1990: policy) (Part 4) Begins: 1990 Jun 1 Ends: 1990 Jul 3 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 8 Classification: Secret Pages: 208
PREM19/951 Argentina (Falklands) (Part 33) Begins: 1983 Mar 3 Ends: 1983 Apr 30 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Any docs withheld? 9 Classification: Secret Pages: 322
PREM19/3656 Disasters (Chernobyl: Soviet nuclear accident, 26 April 1986) (Part 1) Begins: 1986 Apr 29 Ends: 1992 Sep 21 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Any docs withheld? 9 Classification: Top Secret Pages: 299
PREM19/1264 Hong Kong (Future of Hong Kong) (Part 13) Begins: 1984 Apr 2 Ends: 1984 Apr 30 Date of release: 2014 Jan 3 Any docs withheld? 9 Classification: Secret Pages: 293
PREM19/2447 Prime Minister's Tours Abroad (Prime Minister's visit to Italy for Anglo-Italian Summit, October 1988: administrative arrangements) Begins: 1987 Dec 21 Ends: 1988 Oct 20 Date of release: 2016 Nov 7 Any docs withheld? 9 Classification: Secret Pages: 66
PREM19/2812 Prime Minister's Tours Abroad (Prime Minister's visit to Madrid for European Council meeting, June 1989: administrative arrangements) Begins: 1988 Jun 21 Ends: 1989 Jun 29 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 9 Classification: Confidential Pages: 76
PREM19/3699 Egypt (Visits to the UK by President Mubarak and the Egyptian Foreign Minister) (Part 2) Begins: 1986 Jul 14 Ends: 1992 Dec 31 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Any docs withheld? 9 Classification: Confidential Pages: 292
Per page: