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 2226 - 2250 of 3726

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/2257 Industrial Policy (Future of the Rover Group) (Part 15) Begins: 1988 Mar 1 Ends: 1988 Dec 23 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Secret Named Distribution Only Pages: 353
PREM19/2258 Industrial Policy (Future of Rolls-Royce) (Part 3) Begins: 1984 Apr 2 Ends: 1987 May 7 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Confidential & Commercial in confidence Pages: 152
PREM19/2259 Industrial Policy (Future of Rolls-Royce) (Part 4) Begins: 1987 Jul 10 Ends: 1988 Dec 12 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Confidential & Commercial in confidence Pages: 33
PREM19/2260 Information and Publicity (Media coverage of Wiltshire arrests: Home Office guidance circular to journal editors on terrorist threat to VIPs) Begins: 1987 Sep 15 Ends: 1987 Sep 16 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 5
PREM19/2261 Information and Publicity (Relations between the Civil Service and the press; role of Chief Press Secretary, No 10 Downing Street) Begins: 1979 Dec 7 Ends: 1988 Oct 7 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Management In Confidence Pages: 52
PREM19/2262 Information and Publicity (Possible separate Press Office for Attorney General's Office: deferment until after 'Spycatcher' case) Begins: 1988 Jan 11 Ends: 1988 Jan 20 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Classification: Management In Confidence Pages: 11
PREM19/2263 Information and Publicity (Status of transcripts of Prime Minister's press conferences: request from office of Neil Kinnock, Leader of the Opposition) Begins: 1988 Mar 14 Ends: 1988 Mar 22 Date of release: 2015 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 6
PREM19/2264 Iran (The Shah of Iran's wish to settle in the UK: health and future of the Shah) Begins: 1979 May 14 Ends: 1988 Apr 21 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Secret Pages: 40
PREM19/2265 Iraq (Internal situation: Iran-Iraq War) (Part 5) Begins: 1984 Sep 1 Ends: 1987 Jul 19 Date of release: Reconsideration 2027 Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2266 Iraq (Internal situation: Iran-Iraq War) (Part 6) Begins: 1987 Jul 20 Ends: 1987 Aug 10 Date of release: Reconsideration 2027 Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2267 Iraq (Internal situation: Iran-Iraq War) (Part 7) Begins: 1987 Aug 11 Ends: 1987 Aug 31 Date of release: Reconsideration 2027 Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2268 Iraq (Internal situation: Iran-Iraq War) (Part 8) Begins: 1987 Sep 1 Ends: 1987 Dec 18 Date of release: Reconsideration 2027 Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2269 Iraq (Internal situation: Iran-Iraq War) (Part 9) Begins: 1988 Jan 1 Ends: 1988 Dec 31 Date of release: 2017 Jul 20 Any docs withheld? 8 Classification: Top Secret Pages: 473
PREM19/2270 Ireland (Correspondence with Reverend William Martin Smyth MP) Begins: 1987 Nov 2 Ends: 1988 Mar 22 Date of release: 2016 Dec 30 Classification: Secret Pages: 17
PREM19/2271 Ireland (Meetings with the Taoiseach: Anglo-Irish Summits; Anglo-Irish relations) (Part 16) Begins: 1986 May 8 Ends: 1987 Feb 1 Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/2272 Ireland (Meetings with the Taoiseach: Anglo-Irish Summits; Anglo-Irish relations) (Part 17) Begins: 1987 Feb 4 Ends: 1987 Nov 17 Date of release: Retained Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2273 Ireland (Meetings with the Taoiseach: Anglo-Irish Summits; Anglo-Irish relations) (Part 18) Begins: 1987 Nov 18 Ends: 1987 Apr 29 Date of release: Retained Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2274 Ireland (Meetings with the Taoiseach: Anglo-Irish Summits; Anglo-Irish relations) (Part 19) Begins: 1988 May 3 Ends: 1988 Dec 21 Date of release: Retained Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2275 Ireland (Prime Minister's visits to Northern Ireland) (Part 4) Begins: 1985 Nov 6 Ends: 1988 Jan 27 Date of release: 2018 Jul 24
PREM19/2276 Ireland (Situation in Northern Ireland) (Part 22) Begins: 1986 Nov 1 Ends: 1987 Oct 31 Date of release: 2028 Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2277 Ireland (Situation in Northern Ireland: force levels) (Part 23) Begins: 1987 Nov 1 Ends: 1988 Mar 31 Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/2278 Ireland (Situation in Northern Ireland) (Part 24) Begins: 1988 Apr 1 Ends: 1988 Aug 31 Date of release: Retained Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2279 Ireland (Situation in Northern Ireland) (Part 25) Begins: 1988 Sep 1 Ends: 1988 Sep 30 Date of release: Retained Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2280 Ireland (Situation in Northern Ireland) (Part 26) Begins: 1988 Oct 1 Ends: 1988 Dec 29 Date of release: Retained Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2281 Jamaica (Prime Minister's visit to Jamaica, July 1987) Begins: 1987 Jul 6 Ends: 1987 Sep 10 Date of release: 2016 Jul 21 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Confidential Pages: 107
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