Iain Duncan Smith, a former leader of the Conservative Party, has accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of "giving in" to advisors and "marching England back into another lockdown".

Smith termed the latest national lockdown announced by Boris on Saturday as a "body blow to the British people".

Boris in his announcement of the lockdown said "no responsible prime minister" could ignore figures which suggested deaths would reach "several thousand a day", with a "peak of mortality" worse than the country saw in April.

The move has however not gone down well with Smith, who said the lockdown comes "just as the economy was picking up, even giving cause for optimism".

"The way that the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) has pressurized the government into taking this decision has been unprecedented," he said.

The U.K. has reported the ninth-highest number of COVID-19 infections globally and the fifth-highest death toll.

According to the Johns Hopkins University the U.K. had recorded 1,014,800 confirmed infections and 46,645 deaths by Sunday.

Elsewhere, France and Germany also announced national lockdowns this week, while Northern Ireland closed schools for two weeks and restaurants for four weeks from October 16.