Mary Lou McDonald gained 60.9 points and her deputy Michelle O'Neill 41 in the LucidTalk leaders' ratings survey. Picture by Niall Carson/PA Wire

DUP leader Arlene Foster's popularity among her supporters is low, with one pollster describing her rating as "neutral at best".

In its latest survey, LucidTalk asked DUP and Sinn Féin voters to rate their respective leaders – and the latter's northern leader.

While Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald gained 60.9 points and her deputy Michelle O'Neill 41, the former first minister scored a meagre 6.7 points.

The scores are compiled by asking voters to rate their leaders as either excellent, fair, neutral, not good or very bad.

The score is calculated by totalling the excellent and fair ratings and subtracting the not good and very bad, while neutral ratings don't count.

LucidTalk's Bill White said the score didn't reflect especially well on Mrs Foster, who has been tarnished by the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scandal and oversaw her party's disappointing performance in last month's Westminster election.

"The key point from the leader ratings is that these are the views of one’s own supporters, so it would be expected that party leaders should be hitting +40 to +60 at least, with this sort of question – ie within their own voter bases," he said.

"In this context, Arlene Fosters score from the DUP’s own voter base – ie +6.7 is neutral at best, and is very much along the lines of the jury is out on her leadership as far as DUP voters are concerned."