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 2051 - 2075 of 3726

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/2082 Economic Policy (Correspondence from and meetings with Sir Walter Salomon, private banker) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 May 16 Ends: 1987 Jan 23 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21
PREM19/2083 Economic Policy (Correspondence from and meetings with Sir Walter Salomon, private banker) (Part 2) Begins: 1987 Feb 19 Ends: 1987 Apr 9 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21
PREM19/2084 Economic Policy (Domestic monetary policy) (Part 16) Begins: 1986 Oct 1 Ends: 1987 Jun 23 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Secret Pages: 293
PREM19/2085 Economic Policy (Domestic monetary policy) (Part 17) Begins: 1987 Jul 6 Ends: 1987 Dec 8 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Secret Pages: 342
PREM19/2086 Economic Policy (Domestic monetary policy) (Part 18) Begins: 1988 Jan 9 Ends: 1988 Jun 24 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Secret Pages: 397
PREM19/2087 Economic Policy (Domestic monetary policy) (Part 19) Begins: 1988 Jul 1 Ends: 1988 Oct 28 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 383
PREM19/2088 Economic Policy (Strategy) (Part 27) Begins: 1985 Jan 8 Ends: 1987 Jul 24 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21
PREM19/2089 Economic Policy (G7 Summit - Venice, June 1987) (Part 22) Begins: 1986 Sep 18 Ends: 1987 May 29 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Secret Pages: 276
PREM19/2090 Economic Policy (G7 Summit - Venice, June 1987) (Part 23) Begins: 1987 Jun 1 Ends: 1988 Feb 17 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Any docs withheld? 2 Classification: Secret Pages: 401
PREM19/2091 Economic Policy (G7 Summit - Toronto) (Part 24) Begins: 1987 Jun 26 Ends: 1988 Jun 11 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 286
PREM19/2092 Economic Policy (G7 Summit - Toronto) (Part 25) Begins: 1988 Jun 13 Ends: 1988 Jun 17 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Secret and Personal Pages: 330
PREM19/2093 Economic Policy (Exchange rate: exchange control policy) (Part 2) Begins: 1982 Apr 6 Ends: 1986 Dec 11 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 230
PREM19/2094 Economic Policy (Financial Services; Government response to the Roskill Report on Fraud Trials: the Stock Exchange; the 'Big Bang'; insider dealing; investigation of Guinness plc; regulation in the City; review of the Takeover Panel) (Part 4) Begins: 1986 Oct 1 Ends: 1987 May 12 Date of release: 2018 Aug 3 Any docs withheld? 6 Classification: Secret Pages: 287
PREM19/2095 Economic Policy (Indebtedness of various countries; Treasury reports on the international financial scene) (Part 6) Begins: 1986 Mar 20 Ends: 1987 Oct 22 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21
PREM19/2096 Economic Policy (Public sector pensions; Scott Report on the Value of Pensions) (Part 4) Begins: 1982 Jun 4 Ends: 1988 Jun 29 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21
PREM19/2097 Economic Policy (Reform of personal taxation: Green Paper on Personal Taxation; draft Taxpayers' Charter) (Part 3) Begins: 1987 Feb 6 Ends: 1987 Mar 18 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Secret Pages: 95
PREM19/2098 Economic Policy (Pension funds) Begins: 1987 Mar 24 Ends: 1987 Jul 30 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21
PREM19/2099 Economic Policy (Prime Minister's bilaterals with the Chancellor of the Exchequer) (Part 2) Begins: 1986 Nov 3 Ends: 1988 Aug 22 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 246
PREM19/2100 Economic Policy (Policy on small firms; Local Enterprise Agencies) (Part 6) Begins: 1985 May 1 Ends: 1987 Jan 2 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21
PREM19/2101 Economic Policy (Policy towards privatisation; disposal of public sector assets; contracting out of public sector functions) (Part 15) Begins: 1986 Nov 19 Ends: 1987 Mar 25 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21
PREM19/2102 Economic Policy (Policy towards privatisation; disposal of public sector assets; contracting out of public sector functions) (Part 16) Begins: 1987 Apr 1 Ends: 1988 Dec 14 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 333
PREM19/2103 Economic Policy (Public spending) (Part 36) Begins: 1986 Oct 1 Ends: 1987 Jan 16 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Secret Pages: 268
PREM19/2104 Economic Policy (Public spending) (Part 37) Begins: 1987 Feb 5 Ends: 1987 Jul 31 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Secret Pages: 232
PREM19/2105 Economic Policy (Public spending) (Part 38) Begins: 1987 Aug 4 Ends: 1988 Mar 31 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Secret Pages: 280
PREM19/2106 Economic Policy (Public spending) (Part 39) Begins: 1987 Aug 5 Ends: 1988 Jun 30 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Secret Pages: 119
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