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 3701 - 3726 of 3726

Per page:

File name	File title	Begins	Ends	Release date	Any docs withheld?	Classification	Pages
PREM19/4758	Indonesia (UK/Indonesia relations: internal situation) (Part 1)	Begins: 1979 May 1	Ends: 1994 Dec 31	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4799	Kiribati (UK/Kiribati relations: internal situation; visits by Ieremia Tabai and Teatao Teannaki)	Begins: 1985 Nov 20	Ends: 1994 May 10	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4801	North Korea (UK/North Korea relations: internal situation) (Part 1)	Begins: 1981 Aug 27	Ends: 1994 Sep 5	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4803	Labour Party (The Labour Party's strategy and policy: record of taxation; defence policy)	Begins: 1983 Nov 21	Ends: 1994 Oct 6	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4807	Lesotho (UK/ Lesotho relations: internal situation; aid to Lesotho)	Begins: 1980 Mar 1	Ends: 1994 Jun 17	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4818	Luxembourg (UK/Luxembourg relations: internal situation) (Part 1)	Begins: 1979 Jul 1	Ends: 1994 Oct 6	Date of release: 2019 Feb 6
PREM19/4819	Malawi (UK/Malawi relations: internal situation) (Part 1)	Begins: 1983 May 20	Ends: 1994 May 23	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4827	Memoirs (Policy on Ministerial memoirs: Radcliffe Report on Ministerial Memoirs; Margaret Thatcher Downing Street Years) (Part 4)	Begins: 1993 Jun 1	Ends: 1994 Jul 4	Date of release: 2021 Sep 15		Classification: Confidential	Pages: 114
PREM19/4828	Mexico (Anglo-Mexican relations: internal situation in Mexico) (Part 2)	Begins: 1986 Aug 25	Ends: 1994 Dec 5	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4847	Nauru (Internal situation: Nauru/UK relations) (Part 1)	Begins: 1986 Sep 26	Ends: 1994 Jan 12	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4848	Nepal (UK/Nepal relations: internal situation) (Part 1)	Begins: 1981 Jun 19	Ends: 1994 Dec 21	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4850	National Health (Policy on smoking and health: tobacco advertising)	Begins: 1980 Apr 28	Ends: 1994 May 31	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4858	NATO (Appointment of Secretary General of NATO) (Part 1)	Begins: 1980 Sep 1	Ends: 1994 Jun 1	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28		Classification: Secret	Pages: 154
PREM19/4860	NATO (Calls on the Prime Minister by the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee)	Begins: 1980 Mar 1	Ends: 1994 May 18	Date of release: 2019 Feb 6
PREM19/4869	Panama (UK/Panama relations: internal situation) (Part 1)	Begins: 1983 Nov 15	Ends: 1994 May 13	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4870	Papua New Guinea (Relations) (Part 1)	Begins: 1980 Mar 21	Ends: 1994 Dec 30	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4872	Parliament (Prime Minister's meeting with the Speaker of House of Commons) (Part 1)	Begins: 1983 Nov 14	Ends: 1994 Mar 7	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4873	Parliament (The Speaker's overseas travel plans) (Part 1)	Begins: 1979 Jul 31	Ends: 1994 Mar 24	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4887	Parliament (House of Lords procedure: televising of House of Lords proceedings) (Part 2)	Begins: 1983 Feb 3	Ends: 1994 Dec 23	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4907	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meetings and correspondence with President of the National Farmers' Union and National Farmers' Union of Scotland) (Part 1)	Begins: 1979 Nov 2	Ends: 1994 Feb 4	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4923	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meetings with Jeffrey Sterling to discuss shipping, the UK economy and other issues)	Begins: 1989 Jan 9	Ends: 1994 Jul 13	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4927	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meetings with Lord Mayors of London, 25 July 1983, 13 May 1992, 2 November 1993) (Part 1)	Begins: 1983 Jul 22	Ends: 1994 Nov 16	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4928	Prime Minister (Prime Minister's meeting with Admiral Lee Baggett Jnr, SACLANT (Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic), 13 March 1986: includes correspondence regarding a telephone call between the PM and General John Galvin, US Army Supreme Commander Allied Powers Europe, 3 February 1992)	Begins: 1986 Jan 30	Ends: 1992 Jan 16	Date of release: 2018 Dec 28
PREM19/4948	Former Prime Ministers (Sir Winston Churchill's wartime diary) (Part 1)	Begins: 1979 Dec 1	Ends: 1994 Apr 18	Date of release: 2020 Dec 30
PREM19/5478	Venezuela (Internal situation: UK/Venezuela relations) (Part 1)	Begins: 1983 Jan 6	Ends: 1995 Dec 7	Date of release: 2019 Dec 31		Classification: Secret	Pages: 22
PREM19/6222	Former Prime Ministers (Lady Thatcher) (Part 2)	Begins: 1993 May 12	Ends: 1997 Mar 17	Date of release: 2020 Dec 30	Any docs withheld? 2	Classification: Confidential	Pages: 105

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