Cliff Richard has revealed he has been treated for prostate cancer for the past year. The 85-year-old singer said his cancer had “gone at the moment” and backed calls for a national screening test for men.

In an interview with Good Morning Britain, he said: “I don’t know whether it’s going to come back. We can’t tell those sort of things but we need to – absolutely. I’m convinced: get there, get tested, get checked.”

The singer said he received the diagnosis after an insurance-related health check before his concert tour of Australia and New Zealand.

“The good fortune was that it was not very old; and the other thing is that it has not metastasised. Nothing had moved into bones or anything like that.”

Richard, whose hits over the decades include The Young Ones, We Don’t Talk Anymore and Summer Holiday, described the lack of a national screening programme as “absolutely ridiculous”.

“We have governments to look after our country and those who live in that country, so I can’t see how you can say: ‘Oh, we can do this, we can do that, but we don’t do this for these people’,” he said.

“We all deserve to have the same ability to have a test and then start treatments really early … I’ve only been for one year now in touch with cancer, but every time I’ve talked with anybody, this has come up and so I think our government must listen to us.”

King Charles said last week his cancer treatment would be reduced in the new year, and Richard said he was keen to join forces to raise awareness.

“I’ve been involved with many charities over the years, and if the king is happy to front it for us, I’m sure loads of people – I certainly would join him … If the king is listening, I think most of us would say: ‘Yeah, we’re available’.”

In November, the UK National Screening Committee announced a draft recommendation for a targeted prostate cancer screening programme. If implemented, the programme would invite men between 45 and 61 who carry a genetic mutation of the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes to undergo screening every two years.