She upbraided a Bolshevik who told a public meeting that a British revolution would start in three months, insisting that "we want power, but we do not want a revolution", and observed that "Everyone I met in Russia outside the Communist Party goes in terror of his liberty or his life". She had told a reporter for the "Evening Standard" on her return that "I oppose Bolshevism because it is not Socialism, it is not democracy and it is not Christianity", and likened working conditions to slavery. Snowden's denunciations of the Soviets made her unpopular with the left within the Labour movement and resulted in her being voted off the National Executive Committee in 1922. Her prominence led to invitations to stand for Parliament. Snowden refused to stand in Plymouth Devonport against Lady Astor on grounds that Astor's service was invaluable. She was selected at one point as Labour Party candidate for Leicester East, but gave up the candidature when a by-election was called there in Spring 1922 (the Labour candidate won). With Philip Snowden back in Parliament for Colne Valley in 1922 and Labour as the official opposition, Lord and Lady Astor arranged a dinner party where King George V and Queen Mary could meet Labour leaders Snowden, J. R. Clynes, James Henry Thomas and their wives. Snowden became firm friends with Queen Mary. The couple put together all their earnings and savings in 1923 to buy a country house of ten rooms, Eden Lodge, set in an acre of land at Tilford in Surrey. Above her mantelpiece in the drawing room at Eden Lodge were later placed signed photographs of the King and Queen. They sold their London home at Golders Green and took a flat near Parliament in St Ermine's Court, but Ethel was angry when her husband was not allocated the living quarters at 11 Downing Street on becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1924.The Snowdens did not generally host parties, partly because they were both hard workers, but did like to meet up with old friends. They enjoyed music and Ethel was a good pianist. She started a rivalry with Beatrice Webb for the position of the leader among the Labour ministers' wives. After the fall of the Labour government, Ethel Snowden toured Canada and criticised Ramsay MacDonald's leadership in public speeches which were widely reported back in Britain and assumed to be the views of her husband. Although later moderating her language, she stood by her words when questioned by reporters on her return. Conservative Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin appointed Ethel Snowden a governor of the newly established British Broadcasting Corporation in 1926, as a representative of women and of Labour; the appointment carried an annual salary of £750.