Archive

Large scale document 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 2901 - 2925 of 3726

Items per page
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/2983 European Policy (European Monetary System (EMS): economic and monetary union) (Part 7) 1990 May 1 1990 Jun 27 2018 Jun 5 Secret 382
PREM19/2984 European Policy (European Monetary System (EMS): economic and monetary union) (Part 8) 1990 Jul 1 1990 Oct 31 2018 Jun 5 4 Secret 381
PREM19/2985 European Policy (Participation by the UK in cases before the European Courts) 1988 Aug 2 1990 Dec 11 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2986 European Policy (Calls on the Prime Minister by the President of the European Parliament) 1979 Oct 30 1990 Mar 1 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2987 European Policy (Visit to the UK by Jose Maria de Areilza, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, February 1982: possible visit by Catherine Lalumiere, Secretary General of the Council of Europe) 1981 Jul 15 1990 Feb 7 2016 Dec 30 Confidential 43
PREM19/2988 European Policy (Setting up of European Bank of Reconstruction and Development) 1989 Dec 14 1990 Sep 23 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2989 European Policy (UK air transport policy in Europe) 1979 Nov 8 1990 May 8 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2990 Finland (Prime Minister's visit to Helsinki to attend European Democratic Union (EDU) conference, August 1990) 1990 Aug 13 1990 Sep 10 2017 Jul 20
PREM19/2991 Food (Food safety) (Part 3) 1989 Jul 3 1990 Apr 30 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2992 Foreign Policy (East/West relations) (Part 10) 1989 Dec 1 1990 Jan 30 2016 Dec 30 Secret 460
PREM19/2993 Foreign Policy (East/West relations) (Part 11) 1989 Feb 1 1990 Jul 31 2016 Dec 30 4 Secret 315
PREM19/2994 Foreign Policy (Prime Minister's visits to Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Switzerland, 16-23 September 1990) 1990 Aug 17 1990 Oct 11 2016 Dec 30 2 Secret 228
PREM19/2995 Foreign Policy (Prime Minister's visits to Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Switzerland, 16-23 September 1990: briefing) 1990 Sep 12 1990 Sep 21 2016 Dec 30 1 Secret 293
PREM19/2996 Foreign Policy (Prime Minister's visit to Switzerland, September 1990) (Folder 2) 1990 Aug 20 1990 Sep 23 2016 Dec 30 5 Confidential 56
PREM19/2997 Germany (Anglo-German relations) (Part 5) 1989 Sep 1 1990 Sep 13 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/2998 Germany (Internal situation in East Germany: policy towards German reunification) (Part 2a) 1990 Jan 5 1990 Feb 15 2017 Jul 20 3 Secret 299
PREM19/2999 Germany (Internal situation in East Germany: policy towards German reunification) (Part 2B) 1990 Feb 16 1990 Feb 28 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/3000 Germany (Internal situation in East Germany: policy towards German reunification) (Part 3) 1990 Mar 1 1990 Mar 29 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/3001 Germany (Internal situation in East Germany: policy towards German reunification) (Part 4) 1990 Apr 2 1990 Aug 24 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/3002 Germany (Internal situation in East Germany: policy towards German reunification) (Part 5) 1990 Sep 5 1990 Nov 23 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/3003 Germany (Internal situation in the Federal Republic of Germany) (Part 3) 1986 Jun 13 1990 Mar 2 2016 Dec 30 1 Secret 378
PREM19/3004 Germany (Prime Minister's meeting with Lothar de Maiziere, Prime Minister of the Germany Democratic Republic, June 1990) 1990 May 31 1990 Jun 27 2016 Dec 30
PREM19/3005 Germany (Visits to the UK by Richard von Weizsacker, President of the Federal Republic of Germany) 1986 Feb 3 1990 Oct 1 2016 Dec 30 Secret 67
PREM19/3006 Germany (Visit to London by Count Otto Lambsdorff, Chairman of the FDP (Free Democrats), January 1990) 1979 May 17 1990 Jan 30 2016 Dec 30 Confidential 16
PREM19/3007 Germany (Visits by Chancellor Helmut Kohl to the UK) (Part 10) 1986 Nov 20 1990 Mar 30 2016 Dec 30
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