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 1901 - 1925 of 3726

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/1904 Prime Minister (Meetings with the National Pensioners Conventions, February 1982 to March 1986) (part 1) Begins: 1979 May 30 Ends: 1986 Mar 27 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19
PREM19/1905 Prime Minister (Meetings with David Clark MP and Don Dixon MP about closure of Plessey factory in South Shields) Begins: 1984 Mar 26 Ends: 1986 Jun 9 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19
PREM19/1906 Prime Minister (Gift of moon dust to the people of the UK from President Nixon of the USA) Begins: 1970 Feb 10 Ends: 1985 Jan 18 Date of release: 2015 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 178
PREM19/1907 Prime Minister's Gifts (Gifts received by the Prime Minister since taking office) Begins: 1979 Jul 13 Ends: 1985 Nov 5 Date of release: 2015 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 2
PREM19/1908 Prime Minister's Tours Abroad (Prime Minister's visit to Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, April 1985: administrative arrangements) (part 2) Begins: 1985 Apr 4 Ends: 1986 Jan 15 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19 Classification: Confidential Pages: 164
PREM19/1909 Prime Minister's Tours Abroad (Prime Minister's visit to Lille, France, January 1986: Anglo-French Summit on the Channel Fixed Link; administrative arrangements) Begins: 1985 Dec 4 Ends: 1986 Jan 21 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19 Any docs withheld? 2 Classification: Confidential Pages: 73
PREM19/1910 Prime Minister's Tours Abroad (Prime Minister's visit to Norway, September 1986: administrative arrangements) Begins: 1985 Sep 16 Ends: 1986 Oct 13 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19 Any docs withheld? 2 Classification: Confidential Pages: 196
PREM19/1911 Prime Minister's Tours Abroad (Prime Minister's visit to South Korea and to Japan for Tokyo Economic Summit, May 1986: administrative arrangements) Begins: 1985 Dec 4 Ends: 1986 Jul 14 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19 Any docs withheld? 7 Classification: Confidential Pages: 451
PREM19/1912 Prime Minister's Tours Abroad (Prime Minister's visit to Expo' 86 exhibition in Vancouver, Canada, July 1986: administrative arrangements) Begins: 1986 Jan 18 Ends: 1986 Aug 12 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19 Any docs withheld? 4 Classification: Confidential Pages: 329
PREM19/1913 Prime Minister's Tours Abroad (Prime Minister's visit to The Hague for European Council meeting, June 1986: administrative arrangements) Begins: 1986 Apr 11 Ends: 1986 Jul 7 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19 Classification: Confidential Pages: 98
PREM19/1914 Prime Minister's Tours Abroad (Prime Minister's visit to Federal Republic of Germany, September 1986: Anglo-German Summit, Bonn, and visit to British Forces Germany; administrative arrangements) Begins: 1986 Jan 20 Ends: 1986 Sep 19 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19
PREM19/1915 Prime Minister's Tours Abroad (Prime Minister's visit to Italy for Anglo-Italian Summit, Florence, March 1986: administrative arrangements) Begins: 1985 May 9 Ends: 1986 Apr 28 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19 Any docs withheld? 2 Classification: Secret Pages: 117
PREM19/1916 Prime Minister's Tours Abroad (Prime Minister's visit to France for Anglo-French Summit, Paris, November 1986: administrative arrangements) Begins: 1986 May 7 Ends: 1986 Nov 24 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19 Any docs withheld? 2 Classification: Confidential Pages: 80
PREM19/1917 Prime Minister's Tours Abroad (Prime Minister's visit to Israel, May 1986: administrative arrangements) Begins: 1986 Feb 4 Ends: 1986 Dec 18 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19 Classification: Confidential Pages: 290
PREM19/1918 Prime Minister's Tours Abroad ( Prime Minister's visit to European Parliament in Strasbourg, December 1986: administrative arrangements) Begins: 1986 Feb 3 Ends: 1986 Dec 15 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19 Any docs withheld? 4 Classification: Confidential Pages: 107
PREM19/1919 Prime Minister's Tours Abroad (Prime Minister's visit to Washington, USA, November 1986: administrative arrangements) Begins: 1986 Jul 2 Ends: 1986 Dec 8 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19 Any docs withheld? 2 Classification: Secret Pages: 96
PREM19/1920 Regional Policy (Inner city policy: regeneration of Liverpool and London; Docklands Urban Development Corporation; Archbishop of Canterbury's Commission on Urban Priority Areas) (Part 7) Begins: 1985 Aug 8 Ends: 1986 Jan 31 Date of release: 2015 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 3 Classification: Confidential Pages: 382
PREM19/1921 Regional Policy (Inner city policy: regeneration of Liverpool and London; Docklands Urban Development Corporation; Docklands Light Railway and Canary Wharf; South Cardiff urban renewal) (Part 8) Begins: 1986 Feb 4 Ends: 1986 Nov 29 Date of release: 2015 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 307
PREM19/1922 Regional Policy (Review of regional policy: new structure for regional industrial incentives; territorial expenditure; the North/South issue) (Part 7) Begins: 1984 Oct 2 Ends: 1986 Dec 22 Date of release: 2015 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 291
PREM19/1923 Romania (UK/Romanian relations: internal situation) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 Nov 27 Ends: 1986 Jun 30 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19 Any docs withheld? 2 Classification: Confidential Pages: 187
PREM19/1931 Science and Technology (Maintaining the strength of the science base; the science budget; the Engineer and Technology Programme; increase in graduate engineers and technologists) (Part 3) Begins: 1985 Apr 2 Ends: 1985 Jun 28 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19 Classification: Confidential Pages: 233
PREM19/1932 Science and Technology (Maintaining the strength of the science base; the science budget; the Engineer and Technology Programme; increase in graduate engineers and technologists; review of involvement in European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN)) (Part 4) Begins: 1985 Jul 2 Ends: 1986 Jul 31 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19 Classification: Confidential Pages: 278
PREM19/1933 Science and Technology (Prime Minister's meeting with Sir George Porter, President of the Royal Society) Begins: 1986 May 22 Ends: 1986 Aug 5 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19 Classification: Confidential Pages: 40
PREM19/1934 Science and Technology (Women into Science and Engineering Year, 1984; Prime Minister's meetings with Lady Platt, Chairman of the Equal Opportunities Commission) Begins: 1983 Dec 12 Ends: 1986 Jul 7 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 161
PREM19/1935 Science and Technology (Prime Minister's seminar and reception for industrial designers, January 1982) (Part 1) Begins: 1981 Oct 19 Ends: 1985 Dec 10 Date of release: 2016 Feb 19 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 139
Per page: