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 3501 - 3525 of 3726

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/3955 Sport (Withdrawal of the Soviet Union from the Los Angeles Olympic Games, 1984: Yugoslavia and the 1992 Barcelona Olympics) Begins: 1984 May 8 Ends: 1992 Jul 22 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Confidential Pages: 21
PREM19/3956 Trade and Industry (Commodity policy: International Tin Council settlement with creditors) (Part 5) Begins: 1989 Feb 1 Ends: 1992 Jul 6 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Confidential Pages: 161
PREM19/3960 Trade (Merchant shipping: shipping cabotage; fiscal issues; defence needs) Begins: 1988 Jan 21 Ends: 1992 Jul 9 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Confidential Pages: 174
PREM19/3963 Transport (Proposal by Greater London Council (GLC) to extend Jubilee line to Docklands) Begins: 1979 Jun 1 Ends: 1992 Apr 30 Date of release: Temporarily Retained by Department
PREM19/3964 Transport (London Regional Transport: East-West Crossrail) (Part 4) Begins: 1990 May 8 Ends: 1992 Aug 27 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Secret Pages: 311
PREM19/3968 Treasury (Secret Vote cash limits: Intelligence Agencies estimates) Begins: 1990 Oct 10 Ends: 1992 Dec 1 Date of release: Temporarily Retained by Department
PREM19/3969 Turkey (Visits to the UK by Turkish Prime Ministers, Turgut Ozal and Suleyman Demirel) Begins: 1985 Oct 29 Ends: 1992 Nov 26 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 132
PREM19/3970 United Nations (International Year of the Child 1979: World Summit for Children, September 1990) Begins: 1979 May 25 Ends: 1992 Feb 14 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Confidential Pages: 185
PREM19/3980 USA (Visits to the UK by US Secretaries of Defense, Frank Carlucci and Dick Cheney) (Part 2) Begins: 1986 Nov 17 Ends: 1992 Sep 21 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Secret Pages: 107
PREM19/3981 USA (Visit to the UK by George Shultz, US Secretary of State) (Part 2) Begins: 1987 Dec 1 Ends: 1992 May 25 Date of release: Temporarily Retained by Department
PREM19/3982 USA (Visits to the UK by Vice Presidents of the USA, George H.W. Bush and Dan Quayle) (Part 2) Begins: 1987 Aug 11 Ends: 1992 Feb 14 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Any docs withheld? 3 Classification: Confidential Pages: 247
PREM19/3983 USA (Calls on the Prime Minister by British Ambassadors to Washington) Begins: 1979 Jun 21 Ends: 1992 Apr 30 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Confidential Pages: 49
PREM19/3984 USA (United States nuclear defence strategy: US defence policy) Begins: 1980 Aug 6 Ends: 1992 May 28 Date of release: Temporarily Retained by Department
PREM19/3985 USA (Visits to the UK by US trade representatives) Begins: 1980 Jan 23 Ends: 1991 Jun 7 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Restricted Pages: 9
PREM19/3986 USA (Visits to the UK by Richard Nixon) Begins: 1980 Apr 9 Ends: 1992 May 18 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Confidential Pages: 11
PREM19/3987 Vatican (UK/Vatican relations: internal situation) Begins: 1980 Oct 27 Ends: 1992 Dec 11 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 144
PREM19/3988 Yugoslavia (Visit to the UK by the President (Speaker) of the Yugoslav Federal Assembly (1982); visit of Milan Panic, Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, July 1992) Begins: 1981 Nov 1 Ends: 1992 Jul 29 Date of release: 2017 Dec 29 Classification: Confidential Pages: 25
PREM19/3989 Yugoslavia (Internal situation: UK/Yugoslavia relations) (Part 2) Begins: 1988 Oct 21 Ends: 1991 Oct 31 Date of release: 2018 Jul 24
PREM19/4003 Agriculture (Retail food price index)​​​​​​​ (Part 2) Begins: 1987 Aug 5 Ends: 1993 Mar 3 Date of release: 2018 Jul 24
PREM19/4006 Argentina (Internal situation/relations) (Part 44) Begins: 1990 Jan 30 Ends: 1993 May 27 Date of release: 2018 Jul 24
PREM19/4007 Argentina (Defence of the Falkland Islands after repossession) (Part 15) Begins: 1986 Jul 4 Ends: 1993 Dec 20 Date of release: 2018 Jul 24
PREM19/4008 Armistice Day (The Prime Minister's attendance at the Remembrance Sunday Ceremony at the Cenotaph) Begins: 1979 Sep 2 Ends: 1993 Sep 1 Date of release: 2018 Jul 24
PREM19/4009 Australia (UK/Australian relations: internal situation)(Part 3) Begins: 1990 Jan 7 Ends: 1993 Jul 19 Date of release: 2018 Jul 24
PREM19/4010 Bahamas (Internal situation/relations) (Part 1) Begins: 1982 Jun 16 Ends: 1993 Feb 2 Date of release: 2018 Jul 24
PREM19/4012 Belize (Internal situation/relations: visits to UK by Manuel Esquivel, Prime Minister of Belize) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 Dec 12 Ends: 1993 Oct 29 Date of release: 2018 Jul 24
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