diff --git a/RELEASE.md b/RELEASE.md
index 616ba97219..f7e737f8fe 100644
--- a/RELEASE.md
+++ b/RELEASE.md
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 ## Major features and improvements
 
 ## Bug fixes and other changes
+* Fixed an issue where `kedro new --config config.yml` was ignoring the config file when `prompts.yml` didn't exist.
 
 ## Minor breaking changes to the API
 
diff --git a/kedro/framework/cli/starters.py b/kedro/framework/cli/starters.py
index 4d1c3fc804..fe39a5357c 100644
--- a/kedro/framework/cli/starters.py
+++ b/kedro/framework/cli/starters.py
@@ -153,6 +153,8 @@ def new(
     # Obtain config, either from a file or from interactive user prompts.
     if not prompts_required:
         config = {}
+        if config_path:
+            config = _fetch_config_from_file(config_path)
     elif config_path:
         config = _fetch_config_from_file(config_path)
         _validate_config_file(config, prompts_required)
@@ -436,7 +438,6 @@ def _validate_config_file(config: Dict[str, str], prompts: Dict[str, Any]):
     """
     if config is None:
         raise KedroCliError("Config file is empty.")
-
     missing_keys = set(prompts) - set(config)
     if missing_keys:
         click.echo(yaml.dump(config, default_flow_style=False))
diff --git a/tests/framework/cli/test_starters.py b/tests/framework/cli/test_starters.py
index 64aa57115c..0399dbdfed 100644
--- a/tests/framework/cli/test_starters.py
+++ b/tests/framework/cli/test_starters.py
@@ -328,7 +328,7 @@ def test_no_prompts(self, fake_kedro_cli):
         result = CliRunner().invoke(
             fake_kedro_cli, ["new", "--starter", "template", "--config", "config.yml"]
         )
-        _assert_template_ok(result)
+        _assert_template_ok(result, **config)
 
     def test_empty_prompts(self, fake_kedro_cli):
         config = {
@@ -342,7 +342,7 @@ def test_empty_prompts(self, fake_kedro_cli):
         result = CliRunner().invoke(
             fake_kedro_cli, ["new", "--starter", "template", "--config", "config.yml"]
         )
-        _assert_template_ok(result)
+        _assert_template_ok(result, **config)
 
 
 @pytest.mark.usefixtures("chdir_to_tmp")