Thatcher papers release draws back veil on first year at Number 10

The papers include handwritten notes revealing might-have-been appointments for her first cabinet, correspondence with world leaders such as US President Jimmy Carter, and leaked documents from the bitterly divided Labour Party of the late 1970s, some of whose members were secretly sending Mrs. Thatcher private letters of advice and support.

Also among the hundreds of pages being released are materials that offer a deeper insight into life behind the scenes at Number 10 during her first year in power. Engagement files show Mrs. Thatcher struggling to say “no” to requests for her time even when her diary secretary was firmly recommending “refuse”, while newly-released files from her Press Office include notes about the “off the record” Lobby briefings that often set the news agenda.

Various asides and scribbled annotations on yet more documents show her to have been deeply unimpressed by the European Community from the very start of her premiership.

The collection is being opened on 30 January, 2010, and the material will be available for viewing by members of the public in the Archive Centre’s reading rooms at Churchill College, Cambridge by prior appointment, free of charge.

Lady Thatcher’s official files for 1979 were opened at the National Archives in Kew a month ago, meaning that this is the first time a British Prime Minister’s private and official papers have been released in tandem.

The Centre and the Margaret Thatcher Foundation will also announce plans on 30 January to digitise all of Margaret Thatcher’s official and private files, from her earliest years up to the end of her premiership – a collection comprising millions of pages of documents.

The Thatcher Archive has been opened far more readily than that of any of her predecessors. In November 2003, the whole of her private files up to May 1979 were released, the first time that the private papers of a living former Prime Minister have been made available to the public.

Also being released at the Churchill Archives Centre will be many files covering the same period from the unofficial side of Number 10 (the Policy Unit, Political Office, Press Office and Diary Secretary). With their help, it is possible to gain a fuller picture of life at Downing Street under Margaret Thatcher than during the term of any previous Prime Minister.

Material is also being made available from other collections at the Centre, including the papers of Sir Bernard Ingham (Thatcher’s long-serving Press Secretary) and Sir John Hoskyns (head of her first Policy Unit). The Centre holds collections from across the political spectrum, from Sir Winston Churchill and Ernest Bevin to Margaret Thatcher and Neil Kinnock.

Charles Moore, Lady Thatcher’s authorised biographer, said: “The Thatcher archive is a marvellous resource for all those interested in her career as Prime Minister and in this country’s recent political history. This release will provide the raw materials to help researchers to study and understand the changing political landscape of her first year as Prime Minister.”

Many of the digitised documents will be placed online at www.margaretthatcher.org, the official website of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation. The site already offers free access to the full texts of thousands of Lady Thatcher’s public statements, from 1945 to 1990 and many of the key documents from releases at the UK’s National Archives. It is one of the largest contemporary history sites of its kind and includes declassified material from the relevant US Presidential libraries from the 1970s onwards.

Allen Packwood, Director of the Churchill Archive Centre, said: “This is an important release of additional material from the Thatcher Papers which hugely reinforces the material already opened in the collection.”

“The Centre is grateful to the continuing support of Baroness Thatcher and the Margaret Thatcher Archive Trust, which owns the collection on behalf of the nation.”