The government is “misleading” the public with its claim of giving schools record levels of money, the former head of school standards has said.

Sir Michael Wilshaw, the former chief inspector at Ofsted, also said proportionately fewer children from the north make it to university than from the south, adding that regional and ethnic differences were affecting educational success.

Wilshaw, who stood down in 2016, waded into the row over government funding of education, warning that “huge progress” made in boosting standards was in jeopardy “unless the funding goes into schools”.

He told Sky’s Sophy Ridge that more money was needed, and criticised the government’s claims about education funding.

“I know what it’s like to be a headteacher in east London when there was money, and I could raise standards because I did have money, but since I left office I have been in a number of schools up and down the country, particularly in the north of England, and they are struggling for funding. There is no question about that and it’s sad to see.

“It is very worrying that the great progress that we made in schools and the educational standards over the last 20, 30 years – standards had improved remarkably – it’s worrying that there could be a slowdown.”

Wilshaw said schools were struggling to get and keep enough teachers, let alone good teachers, and standards were threatened.

“Talk to headteachers, as I do all the time, and they will say funding is an issue. And it is particularly an issue when they can’t attract good enough people into our schools to raise standards, and unless we can do that and pay teachers enough money to come into the profession and stay in the profession – and retention is probably the more important than recruitment – then we’ll see a decline in standards.”

But Wilshaw also highlighted deeper-seated issues such as poorer performance in the north of England: “The big challenge for our country is huge regional performance and I’ve constantly banged on about standards in the north of England and in some parts of the Midlands.

“In my last year as chief inspector, not one youngster on free school meals got into Oxbridge from the whole of the north-east of England, Yorkshire and Humberside. And in that same region, three times less children go to university than they do in the south. Now that’s not good enough.”

Wilshaw said leadership of schools needed to improve, and more needed to be done to develop high-grade future leaders.

But he also said some parents from white communities were not committed enough to the educational success of their children.

“Why is it that London does very well in all the metrics, why? Because all of our immigrant families in our capital city have parents who value education, support education and are ambitious for their children.

“Why do we see youngsters from white British working-class families doing badly? Often it’s because their parents don’t support them in the way that our immigrant families do.”

He added: “I have said some tough things about parenting, and we should be tough on parents who don’t support their schools, and in some instances are abusive to teachers and headteachers.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Education said: “It is a fact that there is more money going into our schools than ever before – we’ve given every local authority in England more money for every pupil in every school since 2017.

“But we know that schools are facing budgeting challenges and, in recognition of that, have introduced a wide range of support to help them reduce costs and make the most of their resources.

“The education secretary has also made clear that he will back headteachers to get the resources they need to deliver a world-class education as we approach the next spending review.”