diff --git a/news/2 Fixes/12821.md b/news/2 Fixes/12821.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..5951593948e9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/news/2 Fixes/12821.md	
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Use the given interpreter for launching the non-daemon python
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/client/datascience/kernel-launcher/kernelLauncherDaemon.ts b/src/client/datascience/kernel-launcher/kernelLauncherDaemon.ts
index 1ef80d368189..09955c7ef402 100644
--- a/src/client/datascience/kernel-launcher/kernelLauncherDaemon.ts
+++ b/src/client/datascience/kernel-launcher/kernelLauncherDaemon.ts
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 import { ChildProcess } from 'child_process';
 import { inject, injectable } from 'inversify';
 import { IDisposable } from 'monaco-editor';
-import { ObservableExecutionResult } from '../../common/process/types';
+import { IPythonExecutionService, ObservableExecutionResult } from '../../common/process/types';
 import { Resource } from '../../common/types';
 import { noop } from '../../common/utils/misc';
 import { PythonInterpreter } from '../../pythonEnvironments/info';
@@ -27,15 +27,10 @@ export class PythonKernelLauncherDaemon implements IDisposable {
         resource: Resource,
         kernelSpec: IJupyterKernelSpec,
         interpreter?: PythonInterpreter
-    ): Promise<{ observableOutput: ObservableExecutionResult<string>; daemon: IPythonKernelDaemon } | undefined> {
+    ): Promise<{ observableOutput: ObservableExecutionResult<string>; daemon: IPythonKernelDaemon | undefined }> {
         const daemon = await this.daemonPool.get(resource, kernelSpec, interpreter);
 
-        // The daemon pool can return back a non-IPythonKernelDaemon if daemon service is not supported or for Python 2.
-        // Use a check for the daemon.start function here before we call it.
-        if (!daemon.start) {
-            return undefined;
-        }
-
+        // Check to see if we have the type of kernelspec that we expect
         const args = kernelSpec.argv.slice();
         const modulePrefixIndex = args.findIndex((item) => item === '-m');
         if (modulePrefixIndex === -1) {
@@ -49,11 +44,26 @@ export class PythonKernelLauncherDaemon implements IDisposable {
         const moduleArgs = args.slice(modulePrefixIndex + 2);
         const env = kernelSpec.env && Object.keys(kernelSpec.env).length > 0 ? kernelSpec.env : undefined;
 
-        const observableOutput = await daemon.start(moduleName, moduleArgs, { env });
-        if (observableOutput.proc) {
-            this.processesToDispose.push(observableOutput.proc);
+        // The daemon pool can return back a non-IPythonKernelDaemon if daemon service is not supported or for Python 2.
+        // Use a check for the daemon.start function here before we call it.
+        if (!daemon.start) {
+            // If we don't have a KernelDaemon here then we have an execution service and should use that to launch
+            // Typing is a bit funk here, as createDaemon can return an execution service instead of the requested
+            // daemon class
+            // tslint:disable-next-line:no-any
+            const executionService = (daemon as any) as IPythonExecutionService;
+
+            const observableOutput = executionService.execModuleObservable(moduleName, moduleArgs, { env });
+
+            return { observableOutput, daemon: undefined };
+        } else {
+            // In the case that we do have a kernel deamon, just return it
+            const observableOutput = await daemon.start(moduleName, moduleArgs, { env });
+            if (observableOutput.proc) {
+                this.processesToDispose.push(observableOutput.proc);
+            }
+            return { observableOutput, daemon };
         }
-        return { observableOutput, daemon };
     }
     public dispose() {
         while (this.processesToDispose.length) {
diff --git a/src/client/datascience/kernel-launcher/kernelProcess.ts b/src/client/datascience/kernel-launcher/kernelProcess.ts
index 9b88f0e57947..3996d63ee20b 100644
--- a/src/client/datascience/kernel-launcher/kernelProcess.ts
+++ b/src/client/datascience/kernel-launcher/kernelProcess.ts
@@ -224,13 +224,11 @@ export class KernelProcess implements IKernelProcess {
                 this.interpreter
             );
 
-            if (kernelDaemonLaunch) {
-                this.kernelDaemon = kernelDaemonLaunch.daemon;
-                exeObs = kernelDaemonLaunch.observableOutput;
-            }
+            this.kernelDaemon = kernelDaemonLaunch.daemon;
+            exeObs = kernelDaemonLaunch.observableOutput;
         }
 
-        // If we are not python or if we failed with our daemon launch just use the ProcessExecutionFactory
+        // If we are not python just use the ProcessExecutionFactory
         if (!exeObs) {
             // First part of argument is always the executable.
             const executable = this._kernelSpec.argv[0];
diff --git a/src/test/datascience/kernel-launcher/kernelLauncherDaemon.unit.test.ts b/src/test/datascience/kernel-launcher/kernelLauncherDaemon.unit.test.ts
index c03aa732d229..eaef32c25385 100644
--- a/src/test/datascience/kernel-launcher/kernelLauncherDaemon.unit.test.ts
+++ b/src/test/datascience/kernel-launcher/kernelLauncherDaemon.unit.test.ts
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 
 import { assert } from 'chai';
 import { anything, deepEqual, instance, mock, when } from 'ts-mockito';
-import { ObservableExecutionResult } from '../../../client/common/process/types';
+import { IPythonExecutionService, ObservableExecutionResult } from '../../../client/common/process/types';
 import { ReadWrite } from '../../../client/common/types';
 import { KernelDaemonPool } from '../../../client/datascience/kernel-launcher/kernelDaemonPool';
 import { PythonKernelLauncherDaemon } from '../../../client/datascience/kernel-launcher/kernelLauncherDaemon';
@@ -61,10 +61,23 @@ suite('Data Science - Kernel Launcher Daemon', () => {
             assert.equal(daemonCreationOutput.daemon, instance(kernelDaemon));
         }
     });
-    test('If our daemon pool return does not support start, return undefined', async () => {
-        when(daemonPool.get(anything(), anything(), anything())).thenResolve({} as any);
+    test('If our daemon pool returns an execution service, then use it and return the daemon as undefined', async () => {
+        const executionService = mock<IPythonExecutionService>();
+        when(
+            executionService.execModuleObservable(
+                'ipkernel_launcher',
+                deepEqual(['-f', 'file.json']),
+                deepEqual({ env: kernelSpec.env })
+            )
+        ).thenReturn(instance(observableOutputForDaemon));
+        // Make sure that it doesn't have a start function. Normally the proxy will pretend to have a start function, which we are checking for non-existance
+        when((executionService as any).start).thenReturn(false);
+        // Else ts-mockit doesn't allow us to return an instance of a mock as a return value from an async function.
+        (instance(executionService) as any).then = undefined;
+        when(daemonPool.get(anything(), anything(), anything())).thenResolve(instance(executionService) as any);
         const daemonCreationOutput = await launcher.launch(undefined, kernelSpec, interpreter);
 
-        assert.isUndefined(daemonCreationOutput);
+        assert.equal(daemonCreationOutput.observableOutput, instance(observableOutputForDaemon));
+        assert.isUndefined(daemonCreationOutput.daemon);
     });
 });