Matt Hancock has revealed that he is at heightened risk of developing prostate cancer as he urges the NHS to roll out gene testing more widely.

The Health Secretary said he has undergone tests which show that he has a higher rate of the disease than the average man, despite no family history of the cancer.

Mr Hancock called for a national debate about the biggest ethical questions concerning a revolution in genomics, as he revealed that he was shocked by his own results.

The tests found he has a 15 per cent chance of suffering prostate cancer by the age of 75 - a risk about 1.5 times greater than the average man.

In a speech to The Royal Society, the Health Secretary will say the test may have saved his life, as he called for the urgent rollout of “predictive testing” across the NHS.

Mr Hancock is expected to say that too much data was “locked away” in research labs, as a result of bureaucratic obstacles and scientists refusing to share it.

He will also call it an “outrage” that findings which could save lives were not more widely shared, urging researchers to “publish or be damned”.