I've read that there were widespread protest around UK with people asking for their loved ones remains to be returned, but no matter how many protested, the Government decided to establish a policy in the whole of the Empire that the bodies will not be repatriated.
I'm aware that there was a ban on repatriation in France in effect from 1919 to 1922 but that didn't stop Americans from fighting and eventually returning a big number of their dead.
Not discouraging further answers, but this post from u/crossynz goes into great detail about why the British government chose to keep the bodies of British soldiers where they were buried, rather than returning them to their families.