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 2126 - 2150 of 3726

Per page:

File name	File title	Begins	Ends	Release date	Any docs withheld?	Classification	Pages
PREM19/2157	European Policy (European Council meeting, Copenhagen, December 1987) (Part 27)	Begins: 1986 Sep 22	Ends: 1987 Dec 14	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30	Any docs withheld? 5	Classification: Secret	Pages: 331
PREM19/2158	European Policy (European Council meeting, Copenhagen, December 1987: briefing papers) (Part 27A)	Begins: 1987 Dec 1	Ends: 1987 Dec 5	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 309
PREM19/2159	European Policy (European Council meeting, Brussels, February 1988) (Part 28)	Begins: 1988 Jan 21	Ends: 1988 Feb 22	Date of release: Retained		Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2160	European Policy (European Council meeting, Hanover, June 1988) (Part 29)	Begins: 1988 Apr 1	Ends: 1988 Jun 30	Date of release: Retained		Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2161	European Policy (European Council meeting, Rhodes, December 1988) (Part 30)	Begins: 1988 Oct 24	Ends: 1988 Dec 22	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21
PREM19/2162	European Policy (European Monetary System (EMS)) (Part 2)	Begins: 1982 Mar 1	Ends: 1987 Jan 7	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21		Classification: Secret	Pages: 342
PREM19/2163	European Policy (Prime Minister's meetings and correspondence with Sir James Scott-Hopkins, leader of European Democratic Group (EDG) in European Parliament: meetings with Conservative members of EDG)	Begins: 1979 Jul 1	Ends: 1987 Feb 11	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21		Classification: Confidential and Personal	Pages: 242
PREM19/2164	European Policy (European Community budget) (Part 34)	Begins: 1986 Dec 1	Ends: 1987 Jan 30	Date of release: 2016 Dec 30		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 247
PREM19/2165	European Policy (European Community budget) (Part 35)	Begins: 1987 Feb 2	Ends: 1987 Apr 21	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 338
PREM19/2166	European Policy (European Community budget) (Part 36)	Begins: 1987 Apr 22	Ends: 1987 Sep 30	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 252
PREM19/2167	European Policy (European Community budget) (Part 37)	Begins: 1987 Oct 1	Ends: 1987 Nov 30	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 280
PREM19/2168	European Policy (European Community budget) (Part 38)	Begins: 1987 Dec 2	Ends: 1988 May 27	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21		Classification: Confidential and Personal	Pages: 293
PREM19/2169	European Policy (European Community budget) (Part 39)	Begins: 1988 Jun 1	Ends: 1988 Sep 29	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 168
PREM19/2170	European Policy (European Community budget) (Part 40)	Begins: 1988 Oct 3	Ends: 1989 Feb 27	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21		Classification: Confidential and Personal	Pages: 269
PREM19/2171	Fiji (UK/Fiji relations; visits to UK by Ratu Sir Kamisese Maru, April 1981, April 1983 and March 1988)	Begins: 1981 Mar 24	Ends: 1988 Aug 22	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21	Any docs withheld? 7	Classification: Secret	Pages: 185
PREM19/2172	Foreign Policy (East/West relations) (Part 7)	Begins: 1986 Nov 3	Ends: 1987 Nov 27	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21		Classification: Secret and Personal	Pages: 300
PREM19/2173	Foreign Policy (East/West relations) (Part 8)	Begins: 1987 Dec 1	Ends: 1988 Nov 15	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21	Any docs withheld? 11	Classification: Top Secret	Pages: 334
PREM19/2174	Foreign Policy (Future inward and outward State visits; visits by members of the Royal Family)	Begins: 1985 Sep 1	Ends: 1988 Aug 5	Date of release: Retained		Classification: Temporarily retained by Department
PREM19/2175	Foreign Policy (Prime Minister's visit to Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain, September 1988)	Begins: 1988 Aug 1	Ends: 1988 Nov 30	Date of release: Retained		Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2176	Foreign Policy (Prime Minister's visit to Australia, Bahrain, Oman, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Dubai, August 1988) (Part 1)	Begins: 1988 May 12	Ends: 1988 Jul 31	Date of release: Retained		Classification: Temporarily retained by Department
PREM19/2177	Foreign Policy (Bilateral meetings with the Foreign Secretary) (Part 1)	Begins: 1983 Sep 5	Ends: 1987 Sep 28	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21	Any docs withheld? 2	Classification: Top Secret	Pages: 203
PREM19/2178	Foreign Policy (Strategy on foreign policy and defence issues) (Part 3)	Begins: 1985 Apr 1	Ends: 1987 Jul 31	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21		Classification: Secret and Strictly Personal	Pages: 216
PREM19/2179	Foreign Policy (Summary notes on Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) Assessments) (Part 2)	Begins: 1986 Sep 5	Ends: 1987 Dec 18	Date of release: Retained		Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2180	Former Prime Minister (Proposed visit by Sir Harold Wilson to the Soviet Union)	Begins: 1982 Oct 5	Ends: 1986 Nov 19	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 8
PREM19/2181	France (Anglo-French relations: French disruption of UK lamb trade; Anglo-French nuclear defence cooperation; Prime Minister Michel Rocard's environmental initiative) (Part 4)	Begins: 1986 Nov 3	Ends: 1988 Nov 28	Date of release: 2017 Jan 30	Any docs withheld? 3	Classification: Top Secret	Pages: 339

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