The decision announced today has left the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) facing the prospect of having to cancelling the event altogether if they are unable to find a replacement host at only three years' notice.

Andrews admitted he did not know what the financial penalty could be for withdrawing from hosting the Games, and that legal talks had already started with the CGF.

"We’re going to let our team that are in London work through these issues," he said.

Andrews said the costs were "not settled" but would not speculate about the figure.

Andrews did confirm they were working to find out how much had already been spent on the project, the costs of which, he claimed had ballooned from the original budget of AUD$2.6 billion (£1.3 billion/$1.7 billion/€1.5 billion) to AUD$6 billion (£3.1 billion/$4 billion/€3.6 billion).

"I think it would be bad faith, and frankly, against the interest of taxpayers and all Victorians if I were to conduct that negotiation from the other side of the world at a press conference," Andrews said.

"That is just not the way these things are done."

There has been intense criticism of Andrews’ decision to withdraw from the event, with the CGF claiming they were given only eight hours' notice of the announcement and were denied the opportunity of working with Victoria to find a solution.

"It’s a small window, but it’s an important opportunity for us to stop this now and not finish up incurring huge costs beyond this," Andrews said.

"We’ve looked at less sports, we’ve looked at [moving the event to] Melbourne, we’ve looked at every conceivable option.

"All of them are far in excess of AUD$2.6 billion that’s been budgeted."

Andrews defended the original costs when Victoria was awarded the Games in April 2022. 

"Not everybody would agree with that, not everybody would be a fan of the event. Not everybody would buy a ticket and go," he said.

"The business case, the work, had at least AUD$3 billion (£1.5 billion/$2 billion/€1.8 billion) worth of benefit - perhaps more than that ... but when you get to $6 and $7 billion (£3.6 billion/$4.8 billion/€4.2 billion), no, it doesn’t stack up. 

"It’s all cost and no benefit."

it is the second consecutive Commonwealth Games where the original host has withdrawn.

Durban were awarded the 2022 Commonwealth Games but were stripped of them for failing to meet a series of financial deadlines and were replaced by Birmingham.