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 2351 - 2375 of 3726

Per page:

File name	File title	Begins	Ends	Release date	Any docs withheld?	Classification	Pages
PREM19/2382	Parliament (Queen's Speeches on prorogation and opening of Parliament: televising the State Opening) (Part 7)	Begins: 1986 Jul 21	Ends: 1987 Jun 29	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21	Any docs withheld? 5	Classification: Confidential	Pages: 282
PREM19/2383	Parliament (Queen's Speeches on prorogation and opening of Parliament: televising proceedings of the House of Commons; establishment of Select Committee) (Part 8)	Begins: 1987 Oct 16	Ends: 1988 Nov 29	Date of release: Retained		Classification: Retained Sec 3.4
PREM19/2384	Parliament (MPs' pay and pensions) (Part 6)	Begins: 1985 Sep 4	Ends: 1987 Nov 30	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21	Any docs withheld? 2	Classification: Confidential	Pages: 227
PREM19/2385	Poland (Prime Minister's visit to Poland, November 1988) (Part 1)	Begins: 1988 Mar 29	Ends: 1988 Oct 31	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21		Classification: Secret - Cab One	Pages: 293
PREM19/2386	Poland (Prime Minister's visit to Poland, November 1988) (Part 2)	Begins: 1988 Nov 1	Ends: 1988 Dec 17	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 163
PREM19/2387	Poland (Internal situation; economic assistance ) (Part 9)	Begins: 1982 Oct 21	Ends: 1988 Jan 26	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21	Any docs withheld? 1	Classification: Confidential	Pages: 257
PREM19/2388	Poland (Visit of Foreign Minister Josef Czyrek in June 1981 and his successor Marian Orzechowski in December 1987: calls on the Prime Minister)	Begins: 1981 May 5	Ends: 1987 Dec 8	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 62
PREM19/2389	Police (Police policy) (Part 2)	Begins: 1986 Apr 8	Ends: 1988 Dec 23	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21	Any docs withheld? 2	Classification: Secret	Pages: 263
PREM19/2390	Posts and Telecommunications (Pay negotiations in the Post Office and British Telecom (BT): industrial action) (Part 1)	Begins: 1980 Apr 3	Ends: 1987 Aug 14	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21		Classification: Secret	Pages: 249
PREM19/2391	Posts and Telecommunications (Future of the Post Office; Sale of the Government's Cable and Wireless shares; British Telecom (BT) and National Girobank) (Part 10)	Begins: 1985 Aug 1	Ends: 1987 Sep 18	Date of release: Retained		Classification: Temporarily retained by Department
PREM19/2392	Posts and Telecommunications (Future of the Post Office; Government use of Mercury Communications Ltd; privatisation of National Girobank) (Part 11)	Begins: 1987 Oct 5	Ends: 1988 Dec 19	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21	Any docs withheld? 1	Classification: Secret	Pages: 297
PREM19/2393	Posts and Telecommunications (Study by the Official Group on Telecommunications on withstanding a telecommunications strike; industrial action at British Telecom (BT))	Begins: 1982 Jan 11	Ends: 1987 Mar 3	Date of release: Retained		Classification: Temporarily retained by Department
PREM19/2394	Prime Minister (Mark Thatcher and the Omanis: other allegations against Mark Thatcher)	Begins: 1984 Jan 1	Ends: 1988 Nov 9	Date of release: Retained		Classification: Closed for 40 years
PREM19/2395	Prime Minister (Cementation contract: Mark Thatcher and the Omanis) (Part 1)	Begins: 1981 May 4	Ends: 1988 Mar 9	Date of release: Retained		Classification: Closed for 65 years
PREM19/2396	Prime Minister (Cementation contract: Mark Thatcher and the Omanis) (Part 2)	Begins: 1984 Jan 15	Ends: 1988 Mar 19	Date of release: Retained		Classification: Closed for 65 years
PREM19/2397	Prime Minister (Request by Electronic Data Systems to employ Mark Thatcher)	Begins: 1987 Feb 1	Ends: 1987 Feb 23	Date of release: Retained		Classification: Temporarily retained by Department
PREM19/2398	Prime Minister (Submission of papers to the Prime Minister prior to trips abroad and recesses)	Begins: 1979 Jul 17	Ends: 1986 Jul 7	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21		Classification: Unclassified	Pages: 22
PREM19/2399	Prime Minister (Proposal for a Margaret Thatcher Chair of International Relations)	Begins: 1987 Oct 12	Ends: 1988 Jun 23	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21
PREM19/2400	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meeting with a delegation of Muslim religious leaders, 28 April 1988)	Begins: 1988 Jan 28	Ends: 1988 Jun 7	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21	Any docs withheld? 3	Classification: Restricted	Pages: 80
PREM19/2401	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's international commitments) (Part 1)	Begins: 1983 Dec 16	Ends: 1988 May 5	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21	Any docs withheld? 7	Classification: Personal & Confidential	Pages: 226
PREM19/2402	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meeting with Allen Adams MP to discuss Babcock Power, 20 January 1987)	Begins: 1986 Dec 23	Ends: 1987 Jan 20	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21		Classification: Unclassified	Pages: 14
PREM19/2403	Prime Minister (Arab League Delegation visit to London: meeting with Prime Minister; supply of IR18 Thermal Imager to Syria) (Part 3)	Begins: 1983 Apr 15	Ends: 1988 Mar 15	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21	Any docs withheld? 1	Classification: Confidential	Pages: 115
PREM19/2404	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meetings with Archbishop Worlock and Bishop David Sheppard of Liverpool)	Begins: 1986 Nov 17	Ends: 1987 Sep 24	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 107
PREM19/2405	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meeting with Dennis Canavan MP, 17 December 1987)	Begins: 1984 Sep 11	Ends: 1988 Jan 11	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21		Classification: Unclassified	Pages: 62
PREM19/2406	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meetings with Edgar Bronfman, President of the World Jewish Congress)	Begins: 1985 Feb 4	Ends: 1988 Mar 8	Date of release: 2016 Jul 21		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 46

Per page: