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 2526 - 2550 of 3726

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/2557 Transport (Policy on roads: White Paper; review of the roads programme) (Part 3) Begins: 1986 Dec 12 Ends: 1988 Jul 28 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Confidential Pages: 244
PREM19/2558 Turkey (UK/Turkish relations) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 Nov 15 Ends: 1987 Jul 8 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Confidential Pages: 192
PREM19/2559 Turkey (Prime Minister's visit to Turkey, April 1988) (Part 1) Begins: 1988 Feb 1 Ends: 1988 Jul 4 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Any docs withheld? 3 Classification: Secret Pages: 192
PREM19/2560 United Nations (Call on Prime Minister by Sir Anthony Parsons, UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations, August 1979: valedictory despatch by Sir John Thomson, UK Permanent Representative, April 1987) Begins: 1979 Jul 6 Ends: 1987 Apr 15 Date of release: 2016 Nov 7 Classification: Confidential Pages: 25
PREM19/2561 United Nations (Indian initiative for Heads of State or Government to attend a Summit meeting at the United Nations General Assembly, September 1983; President Reagan's invitation to Western leaders to attend meeting in New York, September 1988) Begins: 1983 Apr 3 Ends: 1988 Sep 26 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 130
PREM19/2562 United Nations (Special Session on Disarmament, June 1988) (Part 2) Begins: 1988 Feb 5 Ends: 1988 Feb 28 Date of release: 2016 Nov 7 Classification: Confidential Pages: 9
PREM19/2563 United Nations (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 May 9 Ends: 1987 Sep 29 Date of release: 2016 Nov 7 Classification: Confidential Pages: 244
PREM19/2564 United Nations (World Conference of the United Nations Decade for Women, Copenhagen, July 1980: ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)) Begins: 1980 Jul 8 Ends: 1987 Jul 28 Date of release: 2016 Nov 7 Classification: Confidential Pages: 147
PREM19/2565 USA (Internal political situation: 1988 Presidential election campaign) (Part 2) Begins: 1985 Jan 3 Ends: 1988 Oct 31 Date of release: 2016 Nov 7 Any docs withheld? 3 Classification: Secret Pages: 299
PREM19/2566 USA (Prime Minister's visit to Washington, July 1987) (Part 1) Begins: 1987 Jun 12 Ends: 1987 Jul 23 Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/2567 USA (Prime Minister's visit to Washington, July 1987) (Part 2) Begins: 1987 Jul 24 Ends: 1987 Nov 30 Date of release: Retained Classification: Temporarily retained by Department
PREM19/2568 USA (UK/USA relations) Begins: 1986 Jun 1 Ends: 1987 Jun 26 Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/2569 USA (Visit to UK by President Reagan, June 1988) Begins: 1984 Jun 1 Ends: 1988 Sep 23 Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/2570 USA (Visit to UK by Congressman James Wright, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, July 1988) Begins: 1988 Mar 4 Ends: 1988 Jul 27 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Confidential Pages: 40
PREM19/2571 USA (Visits to UK by Ambassador Paul Nitze, United States Special Adviser on Arms Control) Begins: 1983 Jun 28 Ends: 1987 Feb 26 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 3 Classification: Secret Pages: 128
PREM19/2572 Yemen (Internal situation in the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY): evacuation of British subjects and others) Begins: 1980 Apr 22 Ends: 1988 Oct 18 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2573 Yugoslavia (Internal situation: relations with UK) (Part 1) Begins: 1980 Jan 17 Ends: 1988 May 31 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 254
PREM19/2574 Zambia (Visit to UK by Prime Minister Kebby Musokatwane, September 1987) Begins: 1980 May 30 Ends: 1987 Sep 7 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Confidential Pages: 23
PREM19/2575 Zambia (Internal situation: relations with UK) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 May 8 Ends: 1987 Aug 30 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2576 Zimbabwe (Possible purchase of UK military aircraft) Begins: 1987 Feb 18 Ends: 1987 Jul 29 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 4 Classification: Secret Pages: 27
PREM19/2577 Prime Minister (Personal correspondence with Princess Margaret) Begins: 1980 Jan 9 Ends: 1980 Feb 7 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2578 Defence (Rundown of Royal Dockyards at Chatham and Portsmouth: Chatham Historic Dockyard) Begins: 1982 Apr 19 Ends: 1986 Jul 11 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Confidential Pages: 21
PREM19/2579 Economic Policy (Inquiry into Barlow Clowes Group) Begins: 1988 Jun 13 Ends: 1988 Sep 30 Date of release: Retained Classification: Temporarily retained by Department
PREM19/2580 Economic Policy (Public spending) (Part 40) Begins: 1988 Jul 5 Ends: 1988 Dec 13 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 361
PREM19/2581 Sri Lanka (Visits to UK by Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa, July 1987; possible visit by President Jayawardene) (Part 2) Begins: 1987 Apr 7 Ends: 1988 Sep 6 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Confidential Pages: 147
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