Even the majority supporting it quickly goes away though if you tell them that they wouldn't join with their previously privileged status

Edit: Spelling

Half the country didn't want to leave in the first place.

Don't take this badly but judging by what Labour is doing to anti-Genocide demonstrators, the UK nowadays is even more Fascist and authoritarian than it was back when it left the EU.

The country is so Far-Right that even the Brexiter Tories aren't Far-Right enough for a significant fraction of its population and Reform UK emerged and has significant support

Now that the Poles and the Hungarians have solved that specific problem in their countries, if Britain was to rejoin the EU it would be the most Far-Right and authoritarian country in it and, worse, it the weird American-style Fascism with its thick strain of hateful preachy moralism such as transphobia.

IMHO, Britain needs to change its politics and popular mindset before it rejoins the EU.

half of the UK never wanted to leave

the groups that voted to leave are now dead/retired or moved abroad probably anyway

This assumes the European Union is open to the idea of the UK rejoining. And I'll tell you what: after all that needless drama, I don't think Europe wants to deal with the drama queen for many years to come.

In any case, even if the UK does rejoin, it certainly won't get the special treatment Thatcher got it the first time around.

We're not rejoining the EU any time soon.

Andy Burnham deliberately did this to distract the right wing press from his proposals to abolish the "Triple Lock" on pensions; an expensive policy that benefits older people only by guaranteeing pensions rise by the highest of average earnings, inflation or 2.5% a year. He wants to make it a "double lock" and use the savings to fund social care.

By talking about possibly rejoining the EU (alongside other options - he effectively said he wouldn't rule out rejoining) he's managed to get the right wing eurosceptic press up in arms talking about this instead of the triple lock.

He is not going to actually follow through on the EU because that would be a gift to reform to fight the next election on that issue. Don't get me wrong, I have no doubt Burnham does want us to rejoin the EU long term, but there is no way that is going to be a major issue in the next election. Expect any government proposals to be quietly displaced "until after the next election" as is the standard practice in UK politics to ignore a major topic.

cabinet ministers concerned about reopening Brexit divides are privately urging him to proceed with caution.

I think they have a valid point here, although it may not be the point they intend. The process of getting people onboard with rejoining, and the negotiations themselves will have to be approached with caution, as screwing them up now will mean an even longer delay, and even more harm, before rejoining.

it’s gotta be a lot higher than half. it was just over half for the referendum. now we’ve witnessed the devastation first hand. the few idiots i know who voted to leave have all very much changed their views. is there really anyone who still thinks our economic suicide was good???

is supported by almost half of all voters

Almost

Half of UK doesn't want to. Same as always.

We should have defaulted back into EFTA where we came from.

A lot of the people who supported it are either dead or changed their mind when they realised brexit was moronic.

I hope we do rejoin

Come back guys, we still like you.

I wonder what kind of deal Scotland would get if they joined... independently

Half of the UK didn't want to fucking leave in the first place.

Lots of words but the EU is probably not going to fall for it a second time.

Labour is a dead dinosaur party chasing the fascist reform vote.

They should just put it in the manifesto and do it - no referendum required. After all most of the stupid old twats that voted to leave are dead now.

Absolute majority or nothing

I can't believe half still think they're better off not being in the EU.