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 3726

Items per page
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/26 Economic policy (Strategy) (Part 3) 1979 Jul 16 1979 Oct 2 2009 Dec 30 Secret 56
PREM19/27 Economic policy (G7 Summit - Tokyo) (Part 1) 1979 May 8 1979 Jun 29 2009 Dec 30 2 Secret 288
PREM19/28 Economic policy (G7 Summit - Tokyo) (Part 2) 1979 Jun 30 1979 Oct 18 2009 Dec 30 Secret 114
PREM19/29 Economic policy (Budget) (Part 1) 1979 May 4 1979 Jun 11 2009-12-30 Secret 347
PREM19/30 Economic policy (National Economic Development Council) (NEDC) (Part 1) 1979 May 15 1979 Dec 18 2009 Dec 30 Confidential 219
PREM19/31 Economic policy (Privatization) (Part 1) 1979 Jun 4 1979 Jul 20 2009 Dec 30 Secret 189
PREM19/32 Economic policy (Privatization) (Part 2) 1979 Jul 23 1979 Dec 19 2009 Dec 30 Secret 115
PREM19/33 Economic policy (Domestic monetary policy) (Part 1) 1979 May 10 1979 Jul 25 2009 Dec 30 Secret 208
PREM19/34 Economic policy (Domestic monetary policy) (Part 2) 1979 Sep 7 1979 Dec 20 2009 Dec 30 Secret 245
PREM19/35 Economic policy (Price Commission & Competition Bill)(Part 1) 1979 May 7 1979 Jun 28 2009 Dec 30 Confidential 167
PREM19/36 Economic policy (Invisibles in trade figures) 1979 Sep 6 1979 Oct 26 2009 Dec 30 Unclassified 67
PREM19/37 Economic policy (CPRS paper on UK economy) 1979 May 1 1979 May 8 2009 Dec 30 Confidential 60
PREM19/38 Economic policy (Proposed Council of Economic Advisers) 1979 May 30 1979 Sep 10 2009 Dec 30 Confidential 44
PREM19/39 Economic policy (Bank of England staff pay) 1979 Jun 20 1979 Jun 21 2009 Dec 30 Confidential 9
PREM19/40 Economic policy (Executive perks) 1979 Jul 16 1979 Dec 18 2009 Dec 30 Confidential 87
PREM19/41 Elections (Briefing for incoming PM) 1979 May 4 1979 May 7 2009 Dec 30 Secret 93
PREM19/42 Energy (Energy Policy) (Part 1) 1979 May 4 1979 Jun 16 2009 Dec 30 2 Confidential 219
PREM19/43 Energy (Energy Policy) (Part 2) 1979 Jun 17 1979 Oct 30 2009 Dec 30 Secret 232
PREM19/44 Energy (British National Oil Corporation & BP shares) (Part 1) 1979 Jul 3 1979 Sep 12 2009 Dec 30 Secret 174
PREM19/45 Energy (British National Oil Corporation & BP shares) (Part 2) 1979 Sep 13 1979 Dec 21 2009 Dec 30 Secret 267
PREM19/46 Energy (Offshore Supplies Interest Relief Grants Scheme) 1979 May 24 1979 Sep 20 2009 Dec 30 Confidential 41
PREM19/47 Energy (Nuclear power safety - Schmidt letter) 1979 May 28 1979 Jun 29 2009 Dec 30 Confidential 28
PREM19/48 Energy (Nuclear power plant industry 1979 May 29 1979 Aug 14 2009 Dec 30 Confidential 114
PREM19/49 Energy (UK/Australia nuclear safeguards agreement) 1979 Jun 27 1979 Jul 12 2009 Dec 30 Confidential 42
PREM19/50 European policy (Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)) (Part 1) 1979 May 8 1979 Oct 26 2009 Dec 30 Confidential 230
Items per page