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 276 - 300 of 3727

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
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
PREM19/2504 Security (Security of the Secret Services: Chapman Pincher's book 'Their Trade is Treachery'; Peter Wright case) (Part 5) Begins: 1987 Jan 8 Ends: 1987 Mar 12 Date of release: 2023 Dec 29
PREM19/2505 Security (Security of the Secret Services: Chapman Pincher's book 'Their Trade is Treachery'; Peter Wright case) (Part 6) Begins: 1987 Mar 13 Ends: 1987 Mar 31 Date of release: 2023 Dec 29
PREM19/2506 Security (Security of the Secret Services: Chapman Pincher's book 'Their Trade is Treachery'; Peter Wright case) (Part 7) Begins: 1987 Apr 3 Ends: 1987 Jun 30 Date of release: 2023 Dec 29
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
PREM19/3329 Ex-Prime Ministers (Policy on requests by former Prime Ministers for access to papers from their administration) (Part 1) Begins: 1974 Apr 1 Ends: 1991 Jan 24 Date of release: 2023 Jul 20
PREM19/4827 Memoirs (Policy on Ministerial memoirs: Radcliffe Report on Ministerial Memoirs; Margaret Thatcher Downing Street Years) (Part 4) Begins: 1993 Jun 1 Ends: 1994 Jul 4 Date of release: 2021 Sep 15 Classification: Confidential Pages: 114
PREM19/2036 China (UK/Chinese relations) (Part 4) Begins: 1986 Jun 2 Ends: 1987 Jun 19 Date of release: 2020 Dec 30
PREM19/2216 Home Affairs (Assaults on children: inquiry into child abuse and attached report on child abuse in Cleveland; activities of the Paedophile International Exchange) (Part 1) Begins: 1983 Sep 1 Ends: 1988 Sep 5 Date of release: 2020 Dec 30
PREM19/4948 Former Prime Ministers (Sir Winston Churchill's wartime diary) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 Dec 1 Ends: 1994 Apr 18 Date of release: 2020 Dec 30
PREM19/6222 Former Prime Ministers (Lady Thatcher) (Part 2) Begins: 1993 May 12 Ends: 1997 Mar 17 Date of release: 2020 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 2 Classification: Confidential Pages: 105
PREM19/5478 Venezuela (Internal situation: UK/Venezuela relations) (Part 1) Begins: 1983 Jan 6 Ends: 1995 Dec 7 Date of release: 2019 Dec 31 Classification: Secret Pages: 22
PREM19/1797 Hong Kong (Prime Minister's meetings with Sir Yue-Kong Pao, shipping magnate) (Part 2) Begins: 1982 Feb 8 Ends: 1986 Oct 29 Date of release: 2019 Jul 18
PREM19/2156 European Policy (European Council meeting, Brussels, June 1987) (Part 26) Begins: 1986 May 1 Ends: 1987 Jul 1 Date of release: 2019 Jul 18
PREM19/3889 Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meetings with Baroness Faithfull) Begins: 1986 Aug 29 Ends: 1992 Feb 14 Date of release: 2019 Jul 18
PREM19/3340 Foreign policy (Prime Minister's meetings with the Foreign Secretary) (Part 2) Begins: 1987 Oct 20 Ends: 1990 Dec 18 Date of release: 2019 Jul 18 Any docs withheld? 20 Classification: Secret Pages: 208
PREM19/2641 Economic Policy (G7 Summit - Paris, July 1989) (Part 29) Begins: 1989 Aug 1 Ends: 1989 Sep 4 Date of release: 2019 Apr 16
PREM19/3586 USA (Henry Kissinger's visits to the UK) Begins: 1979 Aug 22 Ends: 1991 Apr 10 Date of release: 2019 Feb 15 Classification: Secret Pages: 276
PREM19/4600 Cyprus (United Nations forces in Cyprus) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 Jun 1 Ends: 1994 Jun 8 Date of release: 2019 Feb 6
PREM19/4818 Luxembourg (UK/Luxembourg relations: internal situation) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 Jul 1 Ends: 1994 Oct 6 Date of release: 2019 Feb 6
PREM19/4860 NATO (Call on the Prime Minister by the Chairman of NATO) Begins: 1980 Mar 1 Ends: 1994 May 18 Date of release: 2019 Feb 6
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