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
PREM19/2434 Prime Minister's Tours Abroad (Prime Minister's visit to Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), Vancouver, and private visit to Dallas, October 1987: administrative arrangements) (Part 1) Begins: 1987 Mar 1 Ends: 1987 Sep 30 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Any docs withheld? 17 Classification: Secret Pages: 203
PREM19/591 Security (Security of the Secret Services; Chapman Pincher's book on penetration of security and intelligence services, 'Their Trade is Treachery'; Prime Minister's statement in Parliament) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 May 8 Ends: 1981 Aug 12 Date of release: 2023 Dec 29 Any docs withheld? 17 Classification: Top Secret - Cab Two Pages: 207
PREM19/1053 Hong Kong (Future of Hong Kong) (Part 4) Begins: 1982 Nov 8 Ends: 1983 Feb 16 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Any docs withheld? 16 Classification: Top Secret Pages: 453
PREM19/1263 Hong Kong (Future of Hong Kong) (Part 12) Begins: 1984 Feb 1 Ends: 1984 Mar 30 Date of release: 2014 Jan 3 Any docs withheld? 16 Classification: Secret Pages: 458
PREM19/3082 Middle East (Situation in the Middle East: Iraqi invasion of Kuwait) (Part 29) Begins: 1990 Sep 14 Ends: 1990 Sep 29 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Any docs withheld? 16 Classification: Secret Pages: 362
PREM19/582 Royal family (Duke of Edinburgh's statement on nuclear war: correspondence between the Duke and Fenner Brockway, Lord Brockway) Begins: 1981 Feb 12 Ends: 1981 Apr 9 Date of release: 2015 Apr 22 Any docs withheld? 16 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 34
PREM19/1623 Security (Security of Buckingham Palace grounds: incident on 9 July 1982; review of law of trespass) Begins: 1981 Aug 20 Ends: 1985 May 9 Date of release: 2018 Jul 24 Any docs withheld? 16 Classification: Secret Pages: 157
PREM19/2540 Soviet Union (UK/Soviet relations; internal situation) (Part 8) Begins: 1987 May 5 Ends: 1987 Oct 30 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Any docs withheld? 16 Classification: Top Secret Pages: 301
PREM19/1421 Australia (Anglo-Australian relations: internal situation; trading relations with the EEC) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 Sep 26 Ends: 1985 Dec 30 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 15 Classification: Secret Pages: 317
PREM19/3076 Middle East (Situation in the Middle East: Iraqi invasion of Kuwait) (Part 23) Begins: 1990 Aug 13 Ends: 1990 Aug 19 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Any docs withheld? 15 Classification: Top Secret Pages: 349
PREM19/1449 Downing Street (250th anniversary of Prime Minister's residence at 10 Downing Street; BBC documentary) Begins: 1984 Dec 10 Ends: 1985 Dec 12 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 15 Classification: Confidential Pages: 181
PREM19/2458 Prime Minister's Tours Abroad (Prime Minister's visit to Turkey, April 1988: administrative arrangements) Begins: 1988 Jan 5 Ends: 1988 May 12 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 15 Classification: Secret Pages: 220
PREM19/2538 Soviet Union (UK/Soviet relations; internal situation) (Part 6) Begins: 1986 Jun 2 Ends: 1987 Jan 30 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Any docs withheld? 15 Classification: Top Secret Pages: 218
PREM19/2004 Zimbabwe (Internal situation: Prime Minister's meeting with Mr Mugabe; relations with South Africa) (Part 4) Begins: 1983 Nov 16 Ends: 1986 Nov 5 Date of release: 2018 Jul 24 Any docs withheld? 15 Classification: Top Secret Pages: 207
PREM19/2685 Foreign Policy (Prime Minister's visit to Morocco, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Namibia, March-April 1989) (Part 1) Begins: 1989 Jan 20 Ends: 1989 Mar 21 Date of release: 2018 Jul 24 Any docs withheld? 15 Classification: Secret - Cab One Pages: 342
PREM19/942 USA (Visit to UK by President Reagan, June 1982) (Part 1) Begins: 1981 Jan 21 Ends: 1982 Apr 30 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Any docs withheld? 14 Classification: Confidential Pages: 256
PREM19/2525 South Africa (Internal situation: relations with UK) (Part 15) Begins: 1987 Sep 2 Ends: 1988 May 26 Date of release: 2016 Nov 7 Any docs withheld? 14 Classification: Secret Pages: 408
PREM19/1498 Foreign Policy (Prime Minister's visit to South-East Asia, April 1985) (Part 2) Begins: 1985 Apr 5 Ends: 1985 Jul 27 Date of release: 2014 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 14 Classification: Secret Pages: 367
PREM19/3441 Middle East (Situation in the Middle East: Iraqi invasion of Kuwait) (Part 36) Begins: 1991 Jan 1 Ends: 1991 Jan 9 Date of release: 2018 Jul 24 Any docs withheld? 14 Classification: Top Secret - Cab One Pages: 304
PREM19/1967 South Africa (Internal situation; relations with UK) (Part 10) Begins: 1986 Jun 1 Ends: 1986 Jun 30 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19 Any docs withheld? 14 Classification: Secret - UK Eyes A Pages: 484
PREM19/3348 France (Visits to UK by President Mitterrand) (Part 7) Begins: 1989 Sep 1 Ends: 1991 Dec 6 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Any docs withheld? 14 Classification: Secret - UK Eyes A Pages: 230
PREM19/120 Security (Security of the Secret Services - Anthony Blunt) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 May 8 Ends: 1979 Nov 23 Date of release: 2016 Dec 20 Any docs withheld? 14 Classification: Top Secret Pages: 219
PREM19/953 Argentina (Falklands) (Part 35) Begins: 1983 Sep 19 Ends: 1983 Dec 30 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Any docs withheld? 13 Classification: Secret Pages: 347
PREM19/1048 Grenada (US-led invasion) (Part 1) Begins: 1983 Mar 29 Ends: 1983 Oct 27 Date of release: 2013 Aug 1 Any docs withheld? 13 Classification: Top Secret
PREM19/2444 Prime Minister's Tours Abroad (Prime Minister's visit to Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain, September 1988: administrative arrangements) Begins: 1987 Dec 6 Ends: 1988 Nov 14 Date of release: 2016 Nov 7 Any docs withheld? 13 Classification: Secret Pages: 254
Per page: